ATHENS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen Syrian refugees were injured in a car crash in northern Greece on Monday, with a suspected smuggler fleeing the site, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.
The driver of the vehicle that was carrying the refugees did not stop for a police check on the national highway connecting the cities of Kavala and Thessaloniki, near the land border with Turkey, according to police sources.
He accelerated and the car veered off the road. A police investigation to locate and arrest him is underway, while the refugees were transferred to a local hospital.
Such incidents are not rare in the region in recent months. Last Thursday a car carrying 11 migrants crashed in northern Greece, resulting in one death and four injuries.
In 2019 a total of 14,891 people crossed the land border from Turkey to Greece, according to the UN High Commissioner of Refugees, in addition to 59,457 who landed on the Greek islands via the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coasts.
