BISHKEK, May 3. /TASS/. The number of children injured in a hit-and-run truck accident in the Suzak district of Kyrgyzstan’s Jalal-Abad Region has risen to 35, the country’s Health Ministry reported.
"There are now 20 victims with various injuries in various health institutions of the Jalal-Abad Region," the ministry said. Five people have been hospitalized in intensive care units, their condition "is assessed as serious." In total, according to the ministry, 35 children and teenagers aged 9 to 16 sought medical help after the incident. Earlier, it was reported that 29 were injured.
The ministry assured that the national and regional health organizations have "sufficient stocks of blood and its components, medicines and medical products."
On May 2, in the Suzak district, a parked Porter truck whose owners were selling ice cream suddenly drove down a hill and into a crowd of children gathered for a mass reading of the Epic of Manas (a very long and traditional epic poem of the Kyrgyz people - TASS). The country's Education Ministry banned such events after the incident.
Kamchybek Tashiyev, head of Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security and deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, said that law enforcement agencies have not yet seen any traces of a terrorist act in the actions of the truck's owner. According to preliminary data, this is a violation of security measures. The families of the victims will receive compensation of up to 200,000 Kyrgyz soms (about $2,200), he said.