A cargo minibus registered in Romania rammed into a car in front on a boulevard in Budapest on Sunday morning, and after the driver fled the scene of the accident, it turned out that more than 20 illegal immigrants, nine of them injured, one of them is serious, reports the official Hungarian agency MTI.

A minibus carrying foreigners was traveling along Museului Boulevard from Astoria to Calvina Square when, under unknown circumstances, it collided with a car driving ahead, MTI reports, citing News.ro. The left front part of the van is damaged. Images shown on M1 TV show the Ford minibus with Romanian registration plates from Mehedinci county.

Medical workers transported one person with serious injuries and eight with minor injuries to the hospital.

The driver, a suspect in human trafficking, jumped out of the car after the accident and ran away.

The accident is the subject of an investigation with an unknown author.

The Hungarian police said that 23 Syrian citizens were detained at the scene of the accident on Muzeului Boulevard.

After the collision, the police soon detained 12 migrants in Fevam Square, not far from the crash site. 12 illegal immigrants could not provide any proof of their identity. These 12 people were among the passengers in the van, but left the scene before the police arrived. They were later found by the police in the nearby Fevam square. According to the M1 TV channel, several of them identified themselves as Kurds or Turks. Since they could not confirm their identity, they were all taken to the police, who opened criminal proceedings for human trafficking.

Migrants – more than 20 people – were crammed into a cargo minibus, which had neither windows nor seats for passengers. Therefore, in addition to the crime of human trafficking, the driver risks being accused of torture. Investigators are also checking whether the driver could have committed other offenses, such as failure to provide assistance.