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Twenty-two people, including children, died Sunday when a vehicle carrying migrants heading for Greece, a member of the European Union, fell off the road in a waterway in the US. west of Turkey.
The vehicle, described as a truck, was traveling on a highway in the Izmir region, near the airport, when it rocked and fell into the channel several meters below, announced the Anadolu official news agency.
The nationality of migrants has not been clearly defined. Twenty-two people were killed, added the agency, which had already carried 19 people, while 13 others were injured.
Images of Turkish television showed the wreckage of the vehicle, reduced to the state of metal burned by the impact of the collision, with corpses scattered alongside.
According to the DHA news agency, the driver of the vehicle, a 35-year-old Turk, survived and told the police on his hospital bed that he had made a gap to avoid a white vehicle approaching.
Among the dead are two babies and two children as well as a pregnant woman, he said.
Once the driver has finished his treatment at the hospital, he will be sent to court with a request for arrest, Anadolu said. Regional prosecutors have opened an investigation, he added.
DHA clarified that the vehicle was heading towards the coast of the Izmir region, from where the migrants had the intention to take inflatable inflatable dinghies, packed in their vehicle, to the airport. Greek island of Samos.
Samos lies a few kilometers north of the Turkish peninsula of Dilek, on the border of the Izmir region.
– Key transit point –
Turkey is an essential transit point for migrants from troubled countries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa in search of a new life in Europe.
One million migrants crossed Turkey to visit Greece in 2015, mainly by boat, in a crisis that forced an agreement between Ankara and the EU to put an end to the movement of people.
The numbers have since declined, but people are still embarking on this very perilous journey and the flow has increased this year from 2017.
According to UN figures, more than 24,500 migrants have arrived in Greece by sea since the beginning of the year, and 118 people lost their lives on this road.
Last week, eight migrants were found drowned in Karaburun district, also in the province of Izmir, after the capsizing of their boat.
According to Anadolu, another 26 people are still officially missing after the accident.
Migrants' trips to Greece are often organized by smugglers who demand hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per person to settle the logistics.
After the disaster off Karaburun, four alleged smugglers were arrested after the testimony of an Iraqi who survived, Anadolu said. They claimed $ 1,500 per immigrant.
The wreckage of the vehicle was reduced to calcined metal by the impact of the accident.
Turkish forensic experts examined the wreck of a truck carrying migrants after his accident in Izmir
