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Several Dead After Passenger Bus Plunges Into Ravine In Pakistan

Updated

Onlookers gather at the wreckage of a fatal bus crash in Pakistan's Balochistan Province on June 8.
Onlookers gather at the wreckage of a fatal bus crash in Pakistan's Balochistan Province on June 8.

A passenger bus veered off a narrow mountain road and plummeted into a ravine in a remote area of southwest Pakistan on June 8, killing at least 22 people, including women and children.

The vehicle plunged into the ravine when the driver apparently failed to negotiate a sharp bend in the road in the mountainous area of Akhtarzai near Killa Saifullah in the province of Balochistan.

The head of the civil hospital in the Qala Saifullah district, Akhtar Mandokhail, told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that 22 dead bodies -- five women, five children, and 12 men -- had been transferred to the hospital.

An injured child who survived the crash was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition, he added.

Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi and other government officials expressed sorrow over the tragic accident.

Balochistan is the most impoverished province of Pakistan, where reports suggest that hundreds of people die every year in traffic accidents due to bad roads and poorly maintained vehicles.

In July, a jam-packed bus rammed into a container truck on a busy highway in central Pakistan, killing at least 33 people.

With reporting by AP
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