Another chase of illegal migrants ended with severely injured police officer and resignations in the Ministry of Interior

A police officer was seriously injured after a minbus carrying migrants crashed into a police vehicle. Ministry of Interior Secretary General, Petar Todorov, and his deputy Stanimir Stanev have resigned. The incident took place early this morning, November 22, on the capital's ring road.

The minibus carrying illegal migrants was chased by police from the Trayanov Gate tunnel to the scene of the incident. Two other police officers were slightly injured. The driver of the minibus has an extensive criminal record and no driving licence.

The injured police officer is 51 years old and was driving the patrol car. He underwent emergency surgery at St Anna's Hospital, his life is in immediate danger and he will be in a medically induced coma for the next 24 hours. The incident was at the scene where the police vehicle stopped outside the traffic lane ready to respond. The officer had been warned that the minibus carrying migrants was being chased by another police patrol for over 50 kilometres from the Trayanov Gate tunnel exit towards the capital and was likely to be heading along the Ring Road.

The investigation is working on two line of enquiry: one - that the driver lost control due to inexperience. The second, however, which is also the main one for the moment, is that he deliberately steered the minibus towards the police patrol, which was on the side of the road in a safe place.

The minibus with the migrants, who claim to be from Syria, departed from the area of the Bulgarian-Turkish border late at night towards Sofia. It was travelling along the Trakia motorway.

"A minibus was being chased, which did not obey a signal at Trayanov Gate tunnel. As a result of the chases, one of our vehicles, which was waiting to join the chases, was hit," explained Kaloyan Miltenov, director of Sofia Directorate of the Ministry of Interior.

A chase started on the motorway.

"According to initial information, it was on Trakia motorway, going at a very high speed, and exiting the motorway," said Ivo Iliev, Sofia's deputy city prosecutor.

The patrol chasing the minibus with migrants requested support from colleagues. A police patrol was stationed on one of the layby of the traffic lane at the entrance to Sofia ready to stop the chased minibus. There was no sign of tyre skid marks towards the police vehicle prior to impact, but traces on the tarmac clearly show how the two cars were pushed forward together after the impact.

"The migrants are being interviewed, persons in hospital are being interviewed, Syrian interpreters are being sought. They are being checked where they came from, then there will be details. We think there are 12 migrants. However, it is an indisputable fact that there are again injured police officers," said Iliana Kirilova, Sofia city prosecutor.

Three police officers were injured. The life of the driver of the police car is in danger. He underwent emergency surgery at “St. Anna” Hospital. He had a severe brain and skull injury with a large hematoma, which was removed during the operation that lasted several hours.

"He is currently in intensive care where he will be in a medicated coma for at least the next 24 hours with all the necessary treatment to allow the severely traumatised brain to have a chance to recover," explained Dr Slavcho Bliznakov, CEO of St Anna's University Hospital.

The other people involved in the crash have minor injuries with no life-threatening injuries. After the latest incident with police officers, Ministry of Interior Chief Commissioner Petar Todorov and his deputy, Stanimir Stanev, announced they were resigning. And they called for increased punishments for such crimes:

"Every day our colleagues deter the migrant wave with their bodies and with their lives and health. It is high time for legislative solutions to show protection for our police officers who are on the road, stopping migrants and risking their lives," said Petar Todorov, outgoing chief commissioner of the Ministry of Interior.

Of the 2,500 sentences for illegal migrant smuggling in the plast two years in the country, only 158 have been effective, Todorov added.

The driver, Naiden, has been detained. He is to face two charges - one for the crash and the other for migrant smuggling. According to BNT sources, he does not have a driving license, but he does have a criminal record of remarkable 50 pages and covers almost the entire Criminal Code. Here comes the natural question that has no answer yet - why a person with such a thick criminal record is at large.

***

Two police officers from the coastal city of Bourgas were killed in the early hours on August 25, 2022, as they tried to stop a bus carrying migrants who had entered Bulgaria illegally.

The incident occurred after the bus refused to stop at two consecutive border police checkpoints in the vicinity of a roundabout.

The two police officers in the car, who tried to obstruct the bus by directly stopping in front of it, were declared dead at the scene.

The bus with Turkish registration plates was transporrting 47 migrants. None of them were injured.

The bus had entered a residential area when the police officers halted their car across the road in front of it. The bus ploughed into the police vehicle and drove over the top of it and smashed into a bus stop.

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