Sunday, August 16, 2026

12 people die as bus carrying Polish pilgrims crashes in Hungary

The police said the driver was taken into custody.

• August 16, 2026
The accident scene.
The accident scene[Credit: AI Jazeera]

At least 12 people were killed, and 10 others injured after a bus carrying pilgrims from Serbia to Poland overturned in eastern Hungary on Sunday.

The police said 57 passengers and two drivers were aboard the bus when it drove into a ditch and overturned near Mezokeresztes, Hungary.

“A Polish-registered bus travelling on the M3 motorway towards Nyiregyhaza … veered off the straight stretch of road into a ditch and overturned,” the police said on their website. “Preliminary information suggests the driver likely fell asleep.”

The police said the driver was taken into custody.

The national disaster management agency said 11 passengers died at the scene, while one was declared dead in the hospital. Thirty-seven people suffered minor injuries, according to the ambulance service.

Some passengers trapped in the vehicle were dragged out by emergency responders.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar commiserated with the victims’ families and thanked rescue workers.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X, “The consular service is operational. We are in contact with the Hungarian authorities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide verified information.”

Also, Polish President Karol Nawrocki said, “It is with deep sorrow that I received the tragic news of the Polish bus accident in Hungary, in which so many of our compatriots died.”

“All the seats were ripped out. People were under the seats; everyone was screaming for help,” a survivor, Helena Tluczek, who suffered broken ribs, told Reuters from a hospital bed.

She added, “When I looked back, it was like … Mother ‌of Jesus… It is not possible; it is unimaginable to see what it looked like inside that bus,” she added.

The accident is considered the deadliest in Hungary since 2003, when 33 people died after a train hit a German tourist bus at Siofok.

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