At least 45 people, including 12 kids, died after a tourist bus crashed in flames on a Bulgarian highway

• A fiery bus crash on a Bulgarian highway killed 45 people, including 12 children, officials said.
• The bus was carrying North Macedonian tourists home on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

At least 45 people, including 12 children, were killed when a bus crashed in flames on a highway in Bulgaria early Tuesday morning, officials said.

Tourists from North Macedonia were on board and the bus had been bringing them home, Reuters reported.

The crash took place around 2 a.m. local time on the Struma highway southwest of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, Reuters reported.

Boyko Rashkov, Bulgaria's interim interior minister, told reporters that the bodies in the bus were "clustered inside and are burnt to ash," Reuters reported.

"The picture is terrifying, terrifying. I have never seen anything like that before," he said.

Lubomir Jovevski, North Macedonia's chief prosecutor, said the death toll included 12 children, the Associated Press reported.

Injured people were taken to the hospital, Reuters said.