Update 2: Romanian student dead, as Spain bus crash claims at least 14 lives. 43 injured

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The Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) has announced one Romanian student has died in the bus accident in Freginals, Spain, occurred on Sunday.

The Romanian Consulate in Barcelona is in touch with the victim’s family and with the Spanish authorities.

“The death of the Romanian student was confirmed by the Spanish authorities during the night, following the complex identification procedures of the victims. The Romanian Consulate in Barcelona has urgently contacted the Spanish authorities and a Consulate’s team has reached the site of the accident in Freginals, at Tortosa morgue where the deceased were taken to and to the Crisis Management Centre set up by the local authorities. The first information delivered refers strictly to the victims’ citizenship, among which no other Romanian citizens were found,” the MAE release reads.

The Romanian girl was 23 years old and was from Iași, an university centre in eastern Romania. She was initially among the 43 injured, but died later on following injuries, Digi24 reports. According to a press release by the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași, the girl was in the first year of the master courses within the Geography Faculty. She has been student in Barcelona under the Erasmus programme since February. The university’s representatives did not reveal the girl’s name out of respect for her aggrieved family.

At least 13 people have been killed after a bus carrying foreign students crashed on a Spanish motorway between the cities of Barcelona and Valencia, more precisely near Freginals, 150km (93 miles) south of Barcelona.

The location is a known accident black spot.

Most of the 57 people on board the bus were students on the Erasmus programme who were returning to Barcelona after a trip to a fireworks festival. 43 people were injured, with 28 of them being rushed to the hospital.

All of those who died were female, officials say. For now, the nationalities of the victims have nor been disclosed, BBC reported.

However, local Spanish officials unveiled that passengers included students from the UK, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Italy, Peru, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, the Palestinian territories, Japan and Ukraine.

Jordi Jane, Catalonia’s regional Interior minister said the driver of the coach “hit the railing on the right and swerved to the left so violently that the bus veered onto the other side of the highway”.

The bus then hit a vehicle coming in the opposite direction, injuring two people inside.

“There were students on board, many of them foreign students studying in Catalonia and in Barcelona who had travelled to Valencia for the Fallas and were returning,” Jane added.

The driver of the bus survived the crash and has been taken to a local police station.

He has tested negative for alcohol or drugs and, according to sources close to the investigation quoted by Spain’s Efe news agency, had worked for the bus company for 17 years without incident. Fresh news quoting sources close to the investigators say tha driver would have fallen asleep while driving.

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