56 killed and 18 injured as bus collides with lorry in southern Pakistan

At least 56 people - 21 women and 19 children under the age of 14 - were killed on Tuesday when a bus collided with a goods truck loaded with coal in southern Pakistan. There have been at least another 18 people injured. The accident happened near the city of Khairpur, 450 kilometres north of Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province. The bus was on its way to Karachi from the northwestern city of Swat. Pakistan has an appalling record of fatal traffic accidents due to poor roads, badly-maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

She was sitting all calm in a seat when I got into the bus which was on fire.

Mohammad Ata, who rescued a four-year-old girl

A senior police official said the bus went on the wrong side of the road, collided head-on with the lorry and the vehicles burst into flames. He said the cause was most likely to have been heavy fog. Private Pakistani TV channels showed rescue workers carrying victims away from the bus as policemen cleared the road.

There was a deep ditch on the road which we call ‘rutting’ some 30 to 40 yards before the place where the bus hit the truck.

A.D.Khawaja, the Motorway Police chief of Sindh province

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