KTEL crash in Albania kills 9
Two Albanian nationals who were seriously injured in an intercity bus crash that killed nine people in southern Albania late on Monday were in critical but stable condition in a hospital in Ioannina, northwestern Greece, yesterday. The men, aged 29 and 60, were among 41 rescued from the wreckage of the bus, a Greek KTEL intercity vehicle that had been en route to Athens from Tirana when it plunged into a 120-meter-deep ravine near the town of Tepeleni. Press reports said one of the two men transferred to Ioannina was an ethnic Greek, though police did not say which. Of the 50 people aboard, police in Albania said that 30 were injured, 10 seriously. The bus driver, a resident of Ioannina who escaped with minor injuries, was being questioned. According to police, it appears that the driver was forced to brake suddenly during heavy rain, when an oncoming truck blocked his way on a narrow stretch of road. The bus skidded on the wet road surface and plunged into the ravine.
