Accident occurred Tuesday night as passenger bus hit a motorcycle, then fuel truck, triggering explosive fire
\n Kabul
\nThe death toll from a collision between a bus carrying Afghan migrants returning from Iran and two other vehicles in western Afghanistan has risen to 78, provincial officials said on Wednesday.
\nSeventy-six people died in the accident in Herat province\u2019s Guzara district on Tuesday night when the passenger bus hit a motorcycle and a truck transporting fuel, causing an explosive fire, officials and eyewitnesses said.
\nTwo of the three survivors later died of their injuries, officials said on Wednesday.
\n\u201cTwo injured individuals from last night\u2019s incident succumbed to severe injuries, increasing the number of victims to 78,\u201d a statement by the provincial information department said, citing representatives of the military hospital that received victims.
\nSeventeen children were among those killed, according to army spokesman Mujeebullah Ansar, though a provincial police source put the number at 19. Many of the bodies were \u201cunidentifiable\u201d, said Mohammad Janan Moqadas, chief physician at the military hospital. \u201cThere was a lot of fire… There was a lot of screaming, but we couldn\u2019t even get within 50 metres (160 feet) to rescue anyone,\u201d 34-year-old eyewitness Akbar Tawakoli told AFP. \u201cOnly three people were saved from the bus. They were also on fire and their clothes were burnt.\u201d
\nClean-up teams worked to remove the torched shell of the bus and twisted wreckage of another vehicle on the roadside early on Wednesday, an AFP journalist saw.
\n\u201cI was very saddened that most of the passengers on the bus were children and women,\u201d another eyewitness, 25-year-old Abdullah, who like many Afghans only uses one last name, told AFP.
\nThe bus was carrying Afghans recently returned from Iran to the capital Kabul, Herat provincial government spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi told AFP. The central Taliban government called for an investigation into the accident.
\n\u201cIt is with deep sorrow that we mourn the loss of numerous Afghan lives and the injuries sustained in a tragic bus collision and subsequent fire in Herat province last night,\u201d it said in a statement.
\nAt least 1.5 million people have returned to Afghanistan since the start of this year from Iran and Pakistan, both of which have sought to force migrants out after decades of hosting them, according to the UN migration agency.
\nMany of those returning spent years outside the country and arrive without a place to go and carrying few belongings, facing steep challenges to resettle in a country gripped by endemic poverty and high unemployment.
\nThe state-run Bakhtar News Agency said Tuesday\u2019s accident was one of the deadliest in the country in recent years.
\n Deadly traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of regulation.
\nIn December last year, two bus accidents involving a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan killed at least 52.
\nIn March 2024, more than 20 people were killed and 38 injured when a bus collided with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in southern Helmand province.
\nAnother serious accident involving a fuel tanker took place in December 2022, when the vehicle overturned and caught fire in Afghanistan\u2019s high-altitude Salang Pass, killing 31 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Accident occurred Tuesday night as passenger bus hit a motorcycle, then fuel truck, triggering explosive fire Kabul The death toll from a collision between a bus carrying Afghan migrants returning from Iran and two other vehicles in western Afghanistan has risen to 78, provincial officials said on Wednesday. Seventy-six people died in the accident in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-497972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n