An Afghan migrant was shot trying to cross into Bulgaria from Turkey late Thursday and died on his way to hospital, the interior ministry said.

"A big group of illegal migrants attempted to enter Bulgaria from Turkey. One man suffered a gunshot wound in the incident and died on the way to hospital," an interior ministry spokeswoman told AFP.

The incident happened near the southeastern Bulgarian town of Sredets Thursday evening, she said, adding that the dead migrant was from Afghanistan.

Public BNR radio cited ministry sources as saying that the group of 48 illegal migrants from Afghanistan was armed and aggressive and refused to obey an order by the Bulgarian border guards to stop and turn back.

The man was either wounded by a ricochet when police fired warning shots in the air or he was directly shot at, the radio said.

The ministry has not confirmed the report.

This is the first serious incident with migrants in the European Union's non-Schengen zone member Bulgaria, which was so far bypassed by migrants heading to western Europe.

It prompted Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to leave an EU summit in Brussels on the migrant crisis and fly back home late Thursday. (k)(++++)

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