At least 15 people were killed in Gaziantep province and 20 more in Mardin province in separate incidents.
At least 35 people have been killed in separate incidents in southeastern Turkey when vehicles crashed into first responders in earlier crashes, authorities said.
Saturday’s crashes occurred just 250 km (155 miles) south of Turkey.
The first happened on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip when a passenger bus collided with emergency crews who had responded to an accident in the southeastern province of Mardin in the west by Derik.
Three firefighters, two paramedics and two journalists were among the 15 killed on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu wrote in a tweet. The other eight deaths were on the bus, he added.
About 20 other people were injured and received treatment, regional governor Davut Gul said on Saturday.
“Around 10:45 this morning, a passenger bus crashed here,” Gul said, speaking from the crash site on the road east of Gaziantep.
“While firefighters, medical teams and other colleagues were responding to the accident, another bus crashed 200 meters away. [219 yards] behind The second bus slid into that location and hit the first responders and the injured on the ground.”
Television footage showed an ambulance badly damaged [Screenshot/Reuters]
Turkey’s Ilhas news agency said two of its reporters died after stopping to help victims of the initial crash, in which a car left the highway and slid down an embankment.
Television footage showed an ambulance with severe rear-end damage as the bus lay on its side on the side of the highway.
Separately, a truck hit a site in Mardin’s Derik district, where first responders were attending to another accident.
Speaking from the scene, Soylu said 20 people were killed and 26 injured. A police officer was among the victims and two drivers were detained pending an investigation, he said.
Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency said a three-vehicle crash had occurred at the same location shortly before and that emergency services were already at the scene when the truck plowed into the crowd.
Turkey has a poor road safety record. Some 5,362 people died in road accidents last year, according to the government.