40 Immigrants Injured in Serbia Van Crash

Forty illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Syria were injured, five seriously, when their van overturned Tuesday on a Serbian highway, state-run RTS television reported.

The accident occurred near Leskovac, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Belgrade, when the van flipped and crashed into a field.

The immigrants entered Serbia from Macedonia and were headed towards EU territory, the report said. Serbia has land borders with three EU countries: Croatia, Hungary and Romania.

The country lies on the so-called Balkans route used by criminals to smuggle people, drugs and weapons towards western Europe.