Amman, July 3 (Petra)– At least 40 people were killed and eight
others injured after a passenger bus plunged into a deep ravine in
the Shirani district of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province
on Friday, provincial officials told China’s Xinhua News Agency.

Shahid Rind, Assistant to the Chief Minister of Balochistan for
Political and Media Affairs, said the death toll rose after several
of the injured succumbed to their wounds while being transported to
hospitals or undergoing treatment.

Police and rescue teams rushed to the scene and evacuated the
victims, including women and children, transporting the injured and
the bodies of those killed to nearby hospitals.

A rescue official said the crash occurred in a rugged mountainous
area, with emergency crews taking more than two hours to reach the
site.

According to local police, the accident happened after the driver
lost control of the bus while negotiating a sharp bend on a mountain
road. The bus was traveling from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan
province, to Peshawar in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province.

//Petra// MF