Struma

Heavy goods vehicle caught fire on Struma motorway near the village of Mursalevo early in the morning on 1st of August, reported the Bulgarian National Television.

From now on, the traffic for a heavy goods vehicles on Bulgarian highways is being banned but only during a certain hours.

On Friday, the ban is valid from 18:00 to 20:00 on  ''Trakia'' Highway from Sofia to Plovdiv. On Sunday, the restriction is from 16:00 to 20:00  for the entire highway.

Today there will be significant clouds over the country and rains in many places. Only in some areas, there will be thunders too, according to the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH).

 In Western Bulgaria, the clouds will decrease in the afternoon.

There will be light, in Eastern Bulgaria and Struma valley moderate to strong northern wind.

Construction of lot 3.1 of the Struma motorway will start in August, Minister Nikolay Nankov told BTV's morning show, quoted by the press office of the Regional Development Ministry.

There is already a selected builder and financing for the stretch, while the construction permit is pending. The lot is nearly 13km long between Blagoevgrad and Krupnik.

A serious traffic is expected on the main roads in Bulgaria today - on the last holiday day after St. George's Day, reported Dnevnik.

The traffic will eventually be heavier than on the May 1 because many Bulgarian people merged the two vacations together. The traffic police forces and the Traffic Infrastructure Agency organized the traffic so as to be easier.

Traffic police will be increasing routine checks for drink and drug driving and driving licence, as well as for the most dangerous offence - speeding, police officer Nikolay Krusharsky, Sofia Directorate of the Interior, told reporters, as cited by FOCUS News Agency.

"There are fewer cars on the roads at weekends, which encourages drivers to speed up," Krusharsky said.

An official ceremony was held on Feb. 24 to commemorate the victims of the 1942 Struma incident, a World War II tragedy that resulted in the death of over 750 Romanian Jews after their ship was sunk by a Soviet submarine after it had been forced to remain docked for two months in Istanbul.

Hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians are on the move on the last day of the Christmas holidays - December 26.

Intense traffic is expected at the entries of large cities, reported Nova TV. Additional road police units will be deployed there in order to ease traffic.

Bulgarian Prime Miniser Boyko Borisov assured on Sunday that the border with Greece has not been breached by migrants, as had been implied by some media, adding that the country managed to carry out one of the quickest readmission of refugees ever achieved in Europe.

Heavy traffic and heightened police presence are expected across Bulgaria on Friday as people continue their trips on the first day from the Easter holiday - Good Friday.

Another 100 000 vehicles are expected to leave the Bulgarian capital on Friday.