Thirteen young Israelis were injured, five moderately to seriously, in a bus accident in the southeastern Asian county of Laos.

Five locals were killed in the accident after the bus driver reportedly fell asleep and crashed into a tree. The driver died from his injuries.

In addition to the Israelis who were injured, locals and about 10 European tourists were injured.

The injured Israelis received emergency medical treatment at the scene and were evacuated to a local hospital. Later, after the intervention of the Magnus International Search & Rescue team and Israel’s Foreign Ministry in Vietnam, the Israelis were transferred by ambulances to a hospital in neighboring Thailand, where they can receive better medical care.

Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Nadav, a young Israeli who was on the bus, was quoted by Ynet: “We were taking an overnight night bus to Pakse. Everyone was sleeping. Suddenly you feel like the bus is going to overturn. I found myself thrown into a ditch under the bus. Miraculously, the bus didn’t crush me. I started crawling out while everyone else was stuck in the bus. There were a lot of injured people, I made a list of all the Israelis to try to identify them. I found an American who knew how to perform a tourniquet while the Laotians were incapacitated and didn’t know what to do. There was complete chaos, panic.”

“After a whole day, we arrived at the hospital and they didn’t know what to do. They transferred them to another hospital. No one treated the wounded except for bandages and painkillers. There were people in shocking condition. After 12-13 hours they got an ambulance from Thailand and evacuated us all to a hospital here. Baruch Hashem, all the Israelis are alive.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)