SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's prime minister sacked three ministers on Friday over a bus accident in which 17 people died, saying politicians needed to take responsibility for a crash that triggered a public outcry over the poor state of the country's roads.
Boyko Borissov demanded the resignations of Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski, Regional Development Minister Nikolay Nankov and Interior Minister Valentin Radev.
"We accept all political responsibility and therefore we resign," Radev told a news conference, also attended by Nankov. "We obviously have not managed to organise things in a way to avoid such an accident."
More than 20 people were also injured in Saturday's crash in northwest Bulgaria, in which the bus spun off a road and fell into a ravine.
Hundreds of citizens in the nearby town of Svoge later protested, urging authorities to repair the section of road where it occurred.
A series of road and rail crashes in recent years have triggered public protests over the government’s handling of transport safety and control over public procurement deals for road maintenance.
(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov)