Rawalpindi:

At least 22 people were killed when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a ravine in Pakistan on Sunday, rescue officials said. The accident occurred near the town of Azad Pattan.

“22 dead till now, including 15 men, six women and one child,” said Farooq Ahmed, a spokesperson for Rescue 1122 emergency services in Punjab.

Muhammad Usman Gujjar, another spokesperson for the rescue service, told AFP that “initial information suggests that a vehicle fell into a ravine”. 

Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan, where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit.

On Saturday, the bodies of 28 pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran were returned to Pakistan. 

The bus was carrying 51 Pakistani pilgrims to Iraq for the Arbaeen commemoration, one of the biggest events of the Shiite calendar, when it overturned and caught fire in front of a checkpoint in Yazd province on Tuesday night, Iranian state TV reported.

The head of Iran’s traffic police, Teymour Hosseini, cited a brake failure and the steep road as the reasons for the crash.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

At least 14 Indians were killed and 17 people injured when a passenger bus plunged into a river in Nepal today. The Indian-registered bus, carrying about 40 passengers, plunged into the Marsyangdi River in the Tanahun district, some 110 kilometers from its destination in the capital Kathmandu.

As per an official, the bus was en route to Kathmandu from Pokhara.

“The bus bearing number plate UP (Uttar Pradesh) FT 7623 plunged into the river and is lying on the bank of the river,” a senior police official told the news agency ANI.

#WATCH | Nepal: An Indian passenger bus with 40 people onboard has plunged into the Marsyangdi river in Tanahun district. The bus was en route to Kathmandu from Pokhara. Search and rescue operations underway by the Nepal Army at the incident site.

(Video Source: News Agency… pic.twitter.com/txxO43O4CV

— ANI (@ANI) August 23, 2024

Relief and rescue operations are underway.

Last month, a devastating landslide in Nepal’s Chitwan district swept away two buses into the Trishuli River, killing at least five Indians.

The landslide occurred on July 12 in the Simaltal area along the Narayanghat-Mugling road in Chitwan district when two buses carrying 65 passengers, including seven Indians, were swept away following heavy rainfall. Three people swam to safety soon after the incident.

The bodies of five Indian nationals have been recovered so far while two are still missing.

The search teams have so far found 25 bodies in the Narayani riverbanks and the Triveni Dam area, approximately 103 kilometers downstream from the incident site. However, only 19 bodies found downstream have been confirmed to be of those missing in the incident.

Baripada (Odisha):

Three persons were killed and 14 injured on Saturday after a bus in which they were travelling hit a truck from behind in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, police said.

The accident took place around 5.30 am on National Highway 18 near Budikhmari Square under the Betanati Police Station limits, when the bus with around 20 pilgrims on board rammed into the commercial vehicle, a senior officer said.

The bus was going towards Gaya from Hyderabad when the accident occurred.

“One of the victims has been identified as bus driver Uday Singh of Charminar area of Hyderabad,” the officer said.

The injured passengers were taken to Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Hospital, Baripada.

Additional District Medical Officer Bijay Kumar Das said the driver died on the spot while two others succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment.

Fourteen injured people are under treatment at the medical college, he said.

The truck driver escaped from the spot after the accident, the officer added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Venice:

At least 21 people, including two children and foreigners, were killed Tuesday and several others wounded when a bus running on methane plunged off a bridge in Venice and caught fire.

“A tragedy has struck our community this evening”, mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote on Facebook, describing the site of the crash as “an apocalyptic scene”.

“The provisional toll is at least 21 fatalities and over 20 people hospitalised,” said Luca Zaia, the governor of the Venice region, deploring a “tragedy of enormous proportions”.

“Efforts are on to extract and identify the bodies,” he said. “The victims and the wounded include people of several nationalities, not just Italians”.

The bus was returning from Venice’s historic centre to a camping site when the accident occurred around 7:30 pm (1730 GMT).

Firefighters said the bus caught fire after careering off a bridge straddling a railway line and linking the Mestre and Marghera districts of the northern Italian city.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “profound condolences”.

“I am in contact with mayor Luigi Brugnaro and (Transport) Minister Matteo Salvini in order to follow the news of this tragedy,” she said in a statement.

Salvini said the cause of the accident could be the driver suddenly taking sick or becoming unwell.

According to Il Corriere della Sera newspaper, the bus swerved off the bridge after smashing through the barrier and fell near railway tracks about 30 metres (100 feet) below.

The newspaper said it caught fire after hitting some power lines.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said, “The aggravating factor was methane and the fire this spread rapidly”.

“I fear that the death toll will rise,” he added.

In July 2018, a bus carrying a group of some 50 holidaymakers back to Naples fell off a viaduct near the city killing 40 people in all.   

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)