SKOPJE (Reuters) - Police in North Macedonia said on Saturday that 34 Afghan migrants have been injured in a highway accident after the driver of a truck carrying them north toward Serbia jumped from the moving vehicle attempting to escape a police patrol.

Three migrants and the Macedonian truck driver were seriously hurt on the main highway in North Macedonia after the speeding truck overturned and ended up in a 14-metre-deep (15.3 yards) gorge, the police said.

The injured, including children, were driven off to nearby hospitals.

The Balkan migrant route officially closed in 2015 when countries along it shut their borders, blocking a main passage to northern Europe. Yet thousands of people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and beyond continue to travel via Turkey, Greece and the Balkans in the hopes of reaching Western Europe.