At least 40 people have died after a bus crashed into a pillar and fell off a bridge in Pakistan on Sunday.
The horrific accident occurred when the bus was carrying 44 passengers from Quetta in Balochistan province to Karachi in neighboring Sindh province. The accident occurred near the town of Bela, in the Lasbela district.
Hamza Anjum Nadeem, assistant commissioner in Bela, said the bodies of 40 people, including women and children, had been recovered. Four injured passengers were rescued.
“The accident occurred due to speeding and the bus crashed into a bridge pillar. It caught fire shortly after it fell (from the bridge),” he said.
Images from the crash site showed what was left of the charred bus lying near the bridge. The recovered remains of some of the dead are lined up in close rows.
Nadeem said the bodies were charred beyond recognition and are being transported to Karachi for DNA samples. Once identified, the bodies will be delivered to the relatives of the victims.
Firefighters and workers from the Lasbela Welfare Trust and the Edhi Welfare Foundation carried out the rescue operation.
Balochistan Prime Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo expressed his sorrow for the loss of life and ordered the authorities to provide the best medical facilities to the injured.
In a separate incident in northwest Pakistan, at least 10 students at a picnic drowned after their boat capsized in a lake on Sunday, police said.
The children, from a religious school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, were visiting a lake at Tanda Dam.
Local police officer Qismat Khan said 25 students were on the boat. Six were rescued and three of them are in critical condition. The dead students were between 11 and 13 years old. Nine children are still missing.
Khan said an earlier group of 16 students was able to cross the lake. But the same boat capsized while taking 25 on the next trip. “According to initial reports, the overloading resulted in the capsize of the boat,” he said.
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