More than 40 people were killed after a bus fell into a ravine and caught fire in the southern Pakistani province of Balochistan on Sunday, officials said.
Key points:
- Forty-one bodies have been recovered from the wreckage, some burned beyond recognition
- The vehicle had crashed into the bridge, causing it to fall into a ravine and catch fire
- In another incident, 10 children died after a boat capsized in Tanda Dam lake
Forty-one bodies were recovered from the wreckage, some burned beyond recognition, district police officer Israr Umrani said.
The bus carrying around 48 people crashed on the way from Balochistan’s capital of Quetta to the southern city of Karachi.
Dozens of people were combing through the wreckage, footage shared by the Edhi Foundation aid and emergency response organisation showed, and ambulance workers were carrying a dead body out of the debris.
Assistant Commissioner Hamza Anjum for Lasbela, a district in Balochistan, told Dawn newspaper the vehicle had crashed into a bridge, causing it to fall into a ravine and catch fire.
Fatal road accidents are common in Pakistan, where traffic rules are rarely followed and roads in many rural areas are in poor condition.
At least 22 people were killed in June, including nine members of one family, when a passenger van fell into deep ravine in Balochistan.
Boat capsize kills 10 children
In another incident in Pakistan, 10 children died when their boat capsized on Sunday, a local police official said.
All of the dead so far recovered from Tanda Dam lake, near Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, were between seven and 14 years old, according to local police official Mir Rauf.
Mr Rauf said 11 children had been rescued from the water, with six in critical condition. The boat was carrying between 25 and 30 students on a daytrip from a local madrassa when it overturned.
“A rescue operation is underway,” Mr Rauf told AFP.
Mass drownings are common in Pakistan, when aged and overloaded vessels lose their stability and pitch passengers into the water.
Many in the country do not know how to swim, particularly women who are discouraged from learning owing to conservative social mores.
Their all-covering clothes also weigh them down once they become sodden.
In July, 18 women drowned when an overcrowded boat carrying a wedding party across the Indus river in Punjab province capsized.
Reuters/AFP