Bus crash kills at least 71, including 17 children in Afghanistan
At least 71 people, including 17 children, have been killed in western Afghanistan after a passenger bus carrying refugees, recently deported from neighbouring Iran, caught fire after colliding with a truck and motorcycle, according to provincial government spokesman Ahmadullah Muttaqi and local police, Al Jazeera reported.
Police in Herat province said on Tuesday that the accident was due to the bus’s “excessive speed and negligence”.
The returnees are part of a massive wave of Afghans deported or forced out of Iran in recent months.
The accident took place a day after Iranian Minister of Interior Eskandar Momeni announced that a further 800,000 people would have to leave the country by next March.
Police in the Guzara district outside Afghanistan’s city of Herat, where the accident occurred, said a motorcycle was also involved.
The majority of those who died were on the bus, but two people travelling in the truck were also killed, as well as another two who were on the motorcycle.
Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of war, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of regulation.
Earliet it was reported that four people were killed and another three were injured in a head-on collision in Aktobe region on August 15.
