Who is the mysterious eighth passenger of Arab origin who got out of the burning bus alive and disappeared

The place of the terrible accident on the highway near Pernik / photo: EPA / EFE

Shaip Nauf al Salah, a 36-year-old Arab citizen of the United Arab Emirates, could not answer whether the mysterious passenger was certain, Bulgarian prosecutor Siyka Mileva could not answer at today's press conference. His name was seen by relatives of the survivors on a list he received at a hospital in Sofia. This is also claimed by the son of the second driver of the bus who died in the vehicle fire. On the official list of survivors The Macedonian Foreign Ministry announced the names of seven people, and among them is not an Arab citizen.

Bulgarian investigators will further investigate who this man is and where he is now. Did he escape the burning bus and then mysteriously disappear into the night.

According to the Bulgarian Public Prosecutor's Office, 44 bodies were recovered from the death bus. for which identification is pending in the coming days after which "the bodies can be released and sent to Macedonia to relatives for burial in a dignified manner."

A few hours before the accident, at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing, a bus belonging to the Skopje-based Besa Trans travel agency with 52 passengers entered from Turkey, and they were registered by the Bulgarian border service.

If we add up the total number of victims - 44 and the number of survivors 7, it is a total of 51 people, unlike the registered 52 at the border crossing Kapitan Andreevo, said Bulgarian prosecutor Siika Mileva. One passenger is missing, which coincides with the statement of one of the surviving witnesses, who claimed that 8 people got off the bus alive.

- In one of the hospital rooms I talked to a surviving boy, my age who broke the glass from the back window and from there the people who are now in the hospital were saved and I told him "You are a hero". He claimed that 8 people were saved. A big puzzle is where the eighth person is when the witness categorically claimed that 8 people were rescued, says the prosecutor, visibly shaken why she was at the scene of the accident and saw the bodies of the dead, and then visited the survivors in the hospital.

The thesis about the mysterious eighth passenger was explained by Borislav Sarafov, Deputy Public Prosecutor and Director of the National Investigation Service.

- If the entry of 52 passengers from that bus was registered at Captain Andreevo, and we have a confirmation for 44 bodies, there is still doubt about the eighth passenger who survived the accident. It is being checked by the video surveillance in those places that he got on another bus from the four of the travel company at one of the stops along the way. The prosecution questioned two of the passengers who were awake at the time of the accident and provided extremely accurate and objective information about the event. They were questioned independently of each other, giving details that match, making them absolutely credible as witnesses. We will interrogate two more of those taken care of in Pirogov Hospital, said Sarafov.

- The lists of passengers are being checked whether someone who was in this bus of Captain Andreevo, left the border with another bus. We do not know whether he left the bus after he was rescued or changed the bus at one of the leisure facilities, says Sarafov, adding that all these hypotheses are being tested.

Mileva mentions that 20 minutes before the fatal moment, the passengers rested at the gas station and the video surveillance is checked to determine who entered the bus, and the documents from the border checkpoints where the entrance of all passengers from the bus that caught fire on the highway are registered. "Struma".

By crossing the DNA samples from the relatives of the victims in the Macedonian bus in Bulgaria, taken by the Macedonian authorities and the DNA samples taken by the Bulgarian investigation services from the burned bodies, the victims will be fully identified in the catastrophic bus accident that early on Tuesday around 2 The incident took place on the Struma highway, investigators confirmed.

On the other hand, the director of Institute of Forensic Medicine Dr. Aleksandar Stankov In a telephone statement for "Free Press" he said that 44 autopsies of complete bodies were completed, as well as body parts, for which further DNA analysis will determine whether they belong to the 44 people or are part of the 45th body.

PHOTO + VIDEO | LIVE: All information about the serious traffic accident in Bulgaria

Dear reader,

Our access to web content is free, because we believe in equality in information, regardless of whether someone can pay or not. Therefore, in order to continue our work, we ask for the support of our community of readers by financially supporting the Free Press. Become a member of Sloboden Pechat to help the facilities that will enable us to deliver long-term and quality information and TOGETHER let's ensure a free and independent voice that will ALWAYS BE ON THE PEOPLE'S SIDE.

SUPPORT A FREE PRESS.
WITH AN INITIAL AMOUNT OF 60 DENARS

Video of the day