Over 50 dead in Afghanistan bus crash involving migrants from Iran

More than 50 people were killed in western Afghanistan when a bus collided with a truck and motorcycle. Photo / Getty Images

More than 50 people were killed in western Afghanistan late on Tuesday when a passenger bus carrying migrants recently returned from Iran collided with a truck and a motorcycle, local police and a provincial official said.

Police in Herat province said the accident was caused because of the bus’ “excessive speed and negligence” on a road outside Herat city in Guzara district.

The bus was carrying Afghans recently returned from Iran and en route to the capital Kabul, provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi told AFP.

“All the passengers were migrants who had boarded the vehicle in Islam Qala,” said Saeedi, referring to a border crossing point.

A massive wave of Afghans have returned from Iran in recent months after Tehran initiated a pressure campaign to force millions of migrants to leave.

At least 1.5 million people have returned to Afghanistan since the start of this year from Iran and Pakistan, which have long hosted millions of Afghans fleeing decades of war and humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations’ migration agency.

Police in Guzara district said a motorcycle was also involved in the accident on Tuesday night.

The bus first collided with the motorcycle then hit the truck, which was carrying fuel, police said, adding that the collision sparked a fire.

Three bus passengers survived, according to police.

Two people travelling in the truck and another two on the motorcycle were among the dead.

An AFP journalist at the site saw the burnt shell of the bus on the road hours after the accident, with the broken remains of the two other vehicles.

Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan because of poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving on highways, and a lack of regulation.

In December last year, two bus accidents involving a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan killed at least 52.

- Agence France-Presse