At least 40 people died in the accident of a bus which exploded after falling from a bridge in the south-west of Pakistan, announced this Sunday January 29 a government official.
“The dead bodies are unrecognizable”said Hamza Anjum, an official from Lasbela district in Balochistan province, where the accident occurred.
Hamza Anjum said three survivors had been rescued. The bus was carrying 48 people when it hit a pillar before going over the bridge it was crossing, he said.
Road deaths are high in Pakistan, with poor expressways, lax road safety and dangerous driving.
Buses there are often filled to the limit of their capacity and wearing seat belts is not a widespread reflex. Road accidents involving a single vehicle are therefore frequent.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 27,000 people died on Pakistan’s roads in 2018.
Ten drownings
Ten children died on Sunday in the sinking of their boat, which was sailing on a lake in northwestern Pakistan, a local police officer told AFP.
All of the victims found in Tanda Dam Lake, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, were between 7 and 14 years old, according to policeman Mir Rauf. He said a rescue operation was underway.
The officer added that eleven children had been rescued, six of them in serious condition. The boat was carrying between 25 and 30 students from a Koranic school on a school trip.
Drownings with multiple fatalities are common in Pakistan, where damaged and overloaded ships can lose their balance, causing passengers to fall.
Many Pakistanis do not know how to swim, especially women, discouraged by the conservative mores of their country. Their integral outfits also become a weight once soaked.
In July, eighteen women drowned when a boat sank on the Indus River in Punjab province. Its passengers were celebrating a wedding.
