Eighteen people in hospital from latest migrant van crash
Greek authorities say 18 people were hospitalized after the latest in a string of often fatal road accidents involving vehicles smuggling migrants through northern Greece.
Police say a van driven by a suspected migrant smuggler and crammed with another 46 people veered off a road and crashed near the northeastern town of Didymoteicho overnight Wednesday.
Police say the migrants, who included several children, were Syrians, Iraqis and Palestinians.
Didymoteicho is very close to the border with Turkey, from which thousands of migrants enter Greece illegally every year hoping to move on to Europe's prosperous heartland.
Most pay criminal gangs to smuggle them into Greece and to drive them from the border to Thessaloniki, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) further west. [AP]
