51 dead in Afghan bus, oil tanker crash

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A passenger bus collided with a fuel tanker in Afghanistan on Friday, killing 51 people and injuring several others, with women and children among the victims, officials said. The incident happened in Ab Band district of Ghazni province, on the highway from Kabul to Kandahar, the capital of the south and Afghanistan’s second largest city, on what is one of the most dangerous roads in the country. One official said the fuel tanker belonged to an Afghan trader and Ghazni is part of the supply route for NATO goods coming into Afghanistan from the north and heading south. “At around 6:30 am (0200 GMT) a passenger bus collided with a fuel tanker in the Spin Band area of Ab Band,” Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, the deputy governor of the province, told AFP. “As a result, the fuel tanker and the passenger bus caught fire and 51 people were killed and six others were wounded in the collision. There are women and children among the victims,” he said. He said most of the dead were burnt beyond recognition.