Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar was injured in a car accident and was rushed to hospital after her official escort collided on the highway near the seaside town of Koper, world agencies report.
The accident occurred in the “Kastelec“ tunnel on the Primorska Highway in the direction of the capital Ljubljana, while the head of state was returning from a summer vacation in Croatia. The president's car was supposed to reach the town of Komenda, where Pirc Musar is the patron of a major charity cycling event organized by the star Tadej Pogačar.
According to the police in Koper, quoted by the national television RTV Slo (www.rtvslo.si), in the serious incident on Friday at around 17:00, two official police cars guarding the head of state in a convoy collided. A total of three people were injured in the collision. The President of Slovenia suffered minor injuries and was immediately transported for observation to the general hospital in the town of Izola. However, another passenger in the escort suffered serious and severe injuries.
The press office of the Slovenian president reported that Natasa Pirc Musar is feeling well and is expected to be discharged from the hospital for home treatment over the weekend. The head of state expressed official gratitude to the emergency teams, the police and the medical staff in Izola for the quick and professional response, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (www.bta.bg) reported.
Due to the incident and the inspection of the scene, the key tunnel “Kastelets“ remained completely closed to traffic for more than three hours. The case has been transferred to the Specialized State Prosecutor's Office of Slovenia, which has been notified of the accident and is conducting an investigation together with the police to clarify the exact causes of the collision of the NSO cars.