A police patrol car smashed through the front window of an optician's shop at 16 Bogoridi Street in Burgas just after 4am today, following a chase, witnesses at the scene say.

Early reports say the crew was responding to a call and chasing a suspect. The car veered off course during the chase and hit the shop window, in a busy part of the city centre.

The window shattered, damaging or destroying some of the stock on display, including prescription glasses and sunglasses. A bin on the pavement outside — the kind that weighs at least 60-70 kg — was knocked over.

The shop is insured, but it is not yet clear how much of the damage the policy will cover or how the payout will work. The cost of the damage has not been worked out.

Police have not said whether they caught the person they were chasing, and no injuries have been reported. Why the chase started in the city centre in the early hours, and exactly what happened in the seconds before the crash, remains unclear.

A similar chase happened in the centre of Burgas a few years ago, during the pandemic. More than 10 patrol cars chased a BMW down the pedestrian Bogoridi Street at speeds over 100 km/h. The lockdown had just been lifted and people were out at bars and cafés. Several cameras caught the chase on film, and the BMW crashed and flipped onto its side near the Alyosha monument.

Updated (30.09, 13:06): A police car crashed into a shop window in Burgas as the driver swerved to avoid a man who had fallen off a bicycle during a chase, said Commissioner Dimitar Dachev, head of the city's public order and traffic police. The man who fled is 31, from Burgas, has a criminal record and was wanted for theft. Police later caught him.