At least 32 people have died in Turkey in two very similar but separate crashes, both involving large vehicles colliding with emergency teams on the scene at earlier road accidents, officials have said.

Three firefighters, four emergency health workers and two journalists from a Turkish news agency were among the 16 people killed on the road between Gaziantep and Nizip, both in Gaziantep province in the southeast of the country, regional governor Davut Gul said.

Speaking from the scene of the crash, Mr Gul described how a passenger bus had crashed at around 10.45 that morning local time.

“While the fire brigade, medical teams and other colleagues were responding to the accident, another bus crashed 200 metres behind,” he said.

“The second bus slid to this site and hit the first responders and the wounded people on the ground.”

The rest of those who died were bus passengers, according to interior minister Suleyman Soylu.

Mr Gul said a 22 further people have been injured.

The Ilhas News Agency reported two of its drone operators were killed after pulling over to help the victims of the initial crash, in which another bus had veered off the road.

Television footage from the scene showed an ambulance with severe damage and the bus overturned on its side.

Vice president Fuat Oktay said the emergency workers and journalists had “lost their lives in the line of duty”.

Some 250km east, in the Derik district of Mardi, a truck hit a separate site where first responders were also attending to an earlier accident, according to footage.

Sixteen people died and 29 others were injured as a result of the incident in Mardin, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, adding that eight of the wounded were in critical condition.