41 killed, three injured in deadly Lasbela bus crash

LASBELA: The death toll from the bus incident that occurred near Chinki stop in the Bela area of the Lasbela district climbed to 41 after a passenger bus plunged into a ravine and caught fire, Geo News reported Sunday.

Three wounded people were taken out of the bus during the rescue operation at the site of the accident.

The accident took place in the wee hours of Sunday as the bus, with at least 44 on board, was en route to Karachi from Quetta.

Bela Assistant Commissioner Hamza Anjum Nadeem said that the rescue operation had been completed.

Sharing the number of people on board the bus and casualties, Nadeem said that 40 bodies were taken out of the wrecked bus. He said that the bodies were unidentifiable. He said that DNA testing will be done for the identification of the deceased, while the injured passengers were being shifted to Civil Hospital, Lasbela.

Earlier, Nadeem said that the rescue workers initially faced obstacles as it was dark in the morning due to the cold weather.

Meanwhile, the police said that the accident happened due to speeding as the bus went out of the driver's control and careened into the ravine. They said that teams of the fire brigade, rescue services and law-enforcement agencies' personnel arrived at the site of the accident and launched a rescue operation.

Efforts to completely douse the blaze were underway, they added.

Mansehra accident 

In a similar incident earlier this month, a five-month-old child was killed while 16 other passengers sustained injuries when a Muzaffarabad-bound bus plunged into a ravine in the Batrasi area in Mansehra. 

SHO Garhi Habibullah had said the police, with the help of Rescue 1122 personnel, shifted the injured to a nearby hospital where the condition of five was stated to be critical.