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Up to 60 killed in passenger bus crash in southern Pakistan

Reports suggest citing local traffic police authorities that the driver of the oil tanker was allegedly speeding in the wrong direction at the time of the fatal crash

MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. At least 57 people were killed on Sunday in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and an oil tanker in Pakistan on a road near the southern port city of Karachi, Al Jazeera reported.

According to various reports, there were about 70 passengers on board of the passenger bus en route from Karachi to the town of Shikarpur as it crashed with the petroleum truck setting both vehicles ablaze.

Reports suggest citing local traffic police authorities that the driver of the oil tanker was allegedly speeding in the wrong direction at the time of the fatal crash.

AFP news agency quoted Semi Jamali, a doctor at Karachi's Jinnah hospital, as saying that "We have received more than 57 dead bodies but the death toll may rise as most of them are completely burnt and stuck to each other."

Few of the passengers were reported to escape unhurt the deadly crash as they traveled on the roof of the bus and jumped off the vehicle moments before the collision.

Pakistan has a terrible record of deadly traffic accidents mainly due to poor maintenance of roads and vehicles as well as reckless driving. There is still no record for the year of 2014, but in 2013 a total of over 8,800 road accidents were registered across Pakistan, which saw over 4,600 people killed and 9,800 injured.

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