UPDATE - At least 52 killed in bus fire in Kazakhstan

UPDATES WITH TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER'S REMARKS

By Aliia Raimbekova

ASTANA (AA) - At least 52 people were killed in a bus fire in northwestern Kazakhstan, the country’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

“There were 55 passengers and two drivers on the bus," in the Aktobe region, Ruslan Imankulov, the ministry’s Emergency Situations Committee representative, told reporters.

"Five passengers managed to escape with injuries.”

He added that the reason for the fire was unknown.

Local media reported that all the passengers on the bus were nationals of Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu expressed grief over the accident.

“I convey my condolences to the friendly and brotherly #Kazakhstan and #Uzbekistan,” Cavusoglu wrote on his official Twitter account.