Dozens killed in Pakistan bus, boat accidents
A bus fell into a ravine and a boat carrying schoolchildren capsised on Sunday.
At least 51 people have been killed in two separate transport accidents in Pakistan.
A bus plunged off a bridge on Sunday, killing 41 people, while 10 children died when a boat capsised in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The bus crashed into a ravine in a remote location in the southwestern province of Balochistan. At the crash site, north of the city of Bela in the Lasbela district, senior administration official Hamza Anjum said “the dead bodies…are beyond recognition”.
Anjum said 40 corpses were retrieved from the wreck alongside three injured people, one of whom died shortly after.
The remaining two survivors were in “serious” condition.
Pkistan bus accident
According to officials, the bus was travelling from Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, to the southern city of Karachi.
“It is feared that the driver may have fallen asleep,” Anjum said, adding that there was the possibility he had been speeding during the long-distance trip.
Footage shared by the Edhi Foundation aid and emergency response organisation showed dozens of people combing through the wreckage, and ambulance workers carrying a dead body out of the debris.
Meanwhile, up to nine people are still missing in the waters with a rescue operation under way after the boat, carrying between 25 and 30 students on a day trip from a local school, overturned, Mir Rauf, a police officer, told AFP news agency.
In November, at least 20 people were killed after a minibus crashed into a deep and water-logged ditch in the Sehwan region of the southern Sindh province.
At least 22 people were killed in June, including nine members of one family when a passenger van fell into a deep ravine in Balochistan.
In July, at least 19 people were killed and 12 others injured after a passenger bus slid off a mountain road and fell into a deep ravine in heavy rain in Shirani, Balochistan province.
-al jazeera
