ISTANBUL, Aug 21, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - At least 34 people were killed and
dozens injured in two separate road accidents Saturday, each in places where
collisions had taken place shortly before, local media reported.

A first crash involving a bus and an ambulance killed 15 people and injured
31 more on a motorway in Gaziantep province, said local officials, revising
an earlier toll of 16.

Governor Davut Gul said earlier the accident had involved "a bus, an
emergency team and an ambulance" on the route between provincial capital
Gaziantep and Nizip.

The DHA news agency said a passenger bus had crashed into an ambulance, a
firefighting truck and a vehicle carrying journalists at the site of a
previous crash.

Three paramedics, three firefighters and two journalists from Turkey's Ilhas
news agency were among those killed, local media reported.

Photos on DHA showed the back of the ambulance ripped out and damage to the
bus.

Gendarmes are currently questioning the driver of the bus to try to establish
what happened, DHA reported.

- Investigations opened -

Prosecutors are investigating a second deadly accident a few hours later, 250
kilometres (155 miles) away, which also happened as the emergency services
were attending an earlier incident at the site.

On this occasion, at least 19 people were killed and nearly 30 injured after
a truck driver hurtled into pedestrians at Derik in Mardin province, Health
Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter, updating an earlier toll of 16.

The accident in Derik "occurred after the brakes gave out on a lorry, which
hit a crowd", Koca wrote. Another 26 were injured, six of them seriously, he
added.

Turkish media shared footage of a driver losing control of his truck, then
careening towards nearby vehicles and pedestrians as they try to flee.

Turkey's official Anadolu press agency reported that an accident involving
three vehicles had happened at the same site shortly before. Emergency
responders were already at the scene when the lorry ploughed into the crowd.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag announced on Twitter that prosecutors had
opened two investigations into the accidents.

"All resources are mobilised," he wrote on Twitter, offering his condolences
to those who had lost loved ones.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sent Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu to
the site of the accident and he was expected there later Saturday, the
Anadolu agency reported.