One of deadliest
\nFootage shows bus going up in a massive ball of flames
\n Tamanrasset
\nOfficials in Algeria said Wednesday that as many as 34 people have been killed in an accident and 12 others have been injured in a head-on collision involving a bus and a commercial vehicle that occurred in the southern desert, leaving the passenger vehicle in flames.
\nThe civil defence agency of Algeria said that it is one of the country\u2019s deadliest road crashes in years.
\nMedia images showed the mangled and charred hull of the bus after the 4:00 am (0300 GMT) accident near Tamanrasset, a city about a 2,000-kilometre (1,250 miles) drive south of the capital Algiers.
\nLocal media reported that burnt bodies were recovered from the bus wreck, near the town of Outoul, 20 kilometres west of Tamanrasset, deep in the Sahara.
\nThe civil defence agency also stated that the bus was \u201ccarrying passengers between Tamanrasset \u2014 a town of 150,000 people \u2014 and Adrar \u2014 with about 65,000 residents \u2014 to the northwest.
\nFootage broadcast by local media showed the bus going up in a massive ball of flames.
\nOther images shared by Algerian media show rescuers at the scene, near the two burnt vehicles that were involved in the accident.
\nAuthorities did not reveal the cause of the crash, however, the government road safety agency remarked that speed is the main cause of road accidents in the country.
\nThere was no official comment on the accident. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is currently in China for a state visit.
\n\u201cMohamed Boudraa, the governor \u2014 or wali \u2014 of Tamanrasset, visited the local hospital where the 12 injured were being treated,\u201d the official APS news agency reported.
\nIt said they suffered serious burns.
\n\u201cProvincial officials also arrived at the site of the accident to oversee rescue operations,\u201d APS said.
\nAlgeria recorded nearly 23,000 road accidents in 2022, leaving 3,409 people dead and more than 30,000 injured, according to the country\u2019s road safety chief Nacef Abdelhakim.
\nTamanrasset is an important transport hub for the movement of people and goods from Algeria\u2019s far south to the coastal north.
\nThe region, near the borders of Mali and Niger, is also a key transit point for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa hoping to reach Europe via Algeria.
\nIn December 2020, a car crash near Tamanrasset killed 20 people and injured 11 others, most of them African migrants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of deadliest Footage shows bus going up in a massive ball of flames Tamanrasset Officials in Algeria said Wednesday that as many as 34 people have been killed in an accident and 12 others have been injured in a head-on collision involving a bus and a commercial vehicle that occurred in the southern desert, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-344166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n