Editor's note: photos have been added
Azerbaijan, Baku, November 25 / Trend M.Aliyev /
The bodies of five Azerbaijani pilgrims who died in the road accident in Turkey have been delivered today to Baku.
The Azerbaijani pilgrims who died in the road accident are Samad Ahmadov (born 1982), Hajikhanim Alijanova (1944), Solmaz Bakhshaliyeva (1941), Zemfira Dadashova (1965), Maharram Kerimov (1938).
Azerbaijani pilgrims injured in the road accident, who are able to be transported, have been arrived in Baku airport named after Heydar Aliyev together with the bodies of died pilgrims. The treatment of remaining injured pilgrims is continuing in Turkey's hospitals.
"20 injured people and the bodies of five dead people have been delivered to Baku. Among injured people the state of eleven ones is entirely satisfactory and the remaining ones are to be hospitalized in case of necessity. Six injured people remained in Sivas, one more person suffered from accident remained there in order to look after them and two pilgrims whose state of health is more severe have been left in Kayseri in order to continue their treatment", the head of international relations division of Caucasian Muslim Board Mugaddas Payizov told journalists when the plane landed in Baku.
According to Payizov, Caucasian Muslim Board is to undertake all expenses in line with this incident.
Answering the questions of journalists, one of the injured people Ilgar Muradov said that the incident happened suddenly and there were no technical faults in the bus until the occurrence of the incident.
"The weather was excellent. There was shiny weather throughout the day. The accident happened on the evening, near 6-7 p.m. The bus was being driven on mountainous roads. God be thanked that the accident didn't happen directly near the steep", Muradov said.
During the accident, which took place yesterday at around 5:50 p.m. on a one-way road in the Sarkisla district of the Sivas province, five Azerbaijani pilgrims died, and 27 were injured. Seven were seriously wounded, Caucasus Muslim Board (CMB) spokesperson Rahima Dadashova told Trend.
The bus with license plate number 90-DS-393 was carrying 34 passengers.
According to police sources in Turkey, the bus driver lost control on a turn. As a result, the bus drove off the road and landed in a ditch. Ambulances, police, gendarme and civil defense forces arrived to the scene. Residents helped in the rescue operations.
This year, Azerbaijan has seen an unusually high number of pilgrims die during or after returning from the Hajj. Shamakhi region akhund Mustafa Mamishov died in a traffic accident on Monday on his way to Shamakhi after returning from the Hajj.
Seventy-five-year-old Jalilabad region resident Duha Mammadova also died at the end of a Hajj ritual.
Earlier, Khanbala Atakishiyev died in the Syrian city of Sham. His body was brought to Baku on Nov. 8 upon his family's request.
Sixty-eight-year-old Mafi Nazarov also died in Syria after making his pilgrimage to Mecca.
About 2,000 pilgrims from Azerbaijan committed the Hajj this year.
