Twelve killed in Lasbela road accident

QUETTA:

At least twelve people were killed and around two dozen sustained injuries when a passenger van smashed into a passenger bus on Friday in Lasbela district of Balochistan.

According to officials, the incident took place at Uthal Zero Point on the Karachi-Quetta Highway. The passenger bus was travelling from Gwadar to Karachi when a passenger van rammed into it.

Soon after the collision, police, rescue officials, district administration, and local people started rescue work, removing the dead and the injured from the mangled vehicles and shifting them to a hospital in Lasbela.

Talking to the media, Lasbela's Edhi Centre In-charge Dr Abdul Hakeem Lasi said seven people died on the spot as a result of the crash while five succumbed to their injuries in the hospital.

"A total of 22 people suffered injuries, seven of which were in a critical condition," he added. Dr Lasi said the critically injured had been transferred to a trauma centre in Karachi.

He said relatives of some of the victims had taken their bodies to their native areas after completion of formalities. He said the passengers of the van bore the brunt of the accident.

Police are probing the causes of the accident which caused disruption of traffic on the busy route.