Not 44, but 45 bodies were found in the bus of the company "Besa Trans", which burned down in Bulgaria on Monday. Initially, Bulgarian authorities claimed that the bodies of 44 people had been found on the bus. During an additional inspection of the Macedonian tourist bus that burned on a highway in Bulgaria, another body was found. This information was confirmed by the Bulgarian Deputy Chief Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov, the Bulgarian National Radio reported.

- At 21:15 on the tragic night, 52 passengers entered through "Captain Andreevo", 45 of them were found in the bus, and seven are in Pirogov hospital. "Unfortunately, there is no other survivor," Sarafov said.

Shadi Nauf al-Sadeh, a mysterious passenger of Arab descent listed as a survivor at a hospital in Sofia, told Bulgarian media that he had nothing to do with the tragic accident and that he had been mistakenly placed on the list. Al-Sadeh, a Bulgarian national, said he was in Pirogov Hospital because his arm was broken and he did not know why his name was written on the list. Last Saturday he was admitted to the Trauma Department at the hospital with a fractured arm.

Confusion over Shadi al-Sadeh's name on the list has sparked much speculation about who the mysterious "eighth passenger" who survived the crash was. The son of one of the bus drivers told the Free Press that he saw al-Sadeh's name written next to the names of the other survivors.

Meanwhile, the circumstances surrounding the tragedy with the Macedonian bus on the "Struma" highway in Bulgaria are slowly being clarified, and many speculations about the accident are eliminated. However, the accident raised many other questions about the safety and correctness of the operation of transport companies.

- In issuing interbus licenses through IPA2, we should have had an integrated computer system for all vehicles, but the funds were withdrawn because they were not used and were reallocated to forensic laboratories in the Ministry of Interior. "It would be possible to know immediately through the database whether the vehicle document is valid," Vladimir Pivovarov, national border management coordinator, told Utrinski briefing.

The Director General of the Customs Administration Slavica Kutirov stated that none of the four Besa Trans buses that left Macedonia on the evening of November 18 was electronically registered by the customs services at the Deve Bair border crossing point. Shift customs officers said they did not register the buses because there was a lot of congestion and the system was slow.

- Just like the fatal bus, on the evening of the 18th, three more buses of "Besa Trans" passed and we do not have records in the system for them. We have certain documents such as travel document, interbus and travel list. That is another reason why there was negligence. But that does not mean that a license was not requested. The procedure itself requires the driver to submit a series of documents, including the license statement. Electronic records should be made on the basis of those documents. Colleagues claim that they requested those documents, only the electronic records in the system are missing. They probably asked for the documents, but we do not keep a copy of those documents - said the director Kutirov.

Transportation of the injured and the dead is organized

The injured from the bus accident in Bulgaria will be transported to the country by ambulances. The Ministry of Health should cover the costs for the appropriate health care in the Sofia hospital "Pirogov", regardless of whether the injured persons are insured in the Health Insurance Fund or not.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of organizing and realizing a worthy transport of the remains of the deceased from Bulgaria to Macedonia, and the costs will be covered by the General Secretariat of the Government. The Ministry of Interior should ensure a smooth passage with police escort from the border with Bulgaria to the final destinations.