Death toll rises to 35 in Iran bus accident

A devastating bus accident in the Iranian city of Yazd has claimed the lives of 35 Pakistani pilgrims, with an additional 15 passengers left in critical condition. The bus, carrying devotees from various cities in Pakistan's Sindh province, including Larkana and Ghotki, was en route to a pilgrimage site when the tragedy occurred.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the cause of the accident may have been a malfunction in the bus's braking system. The vehicle, unable to slow down or stop, careened off the road, resulting in the catastrophic loss of life and numerous injuries.

09:44

A bus carrying Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq crashed in central Iran, killing at least 28 people, an official said on August 21, Report informs referring to AP.

The crash happened Tuesday night in the central Iranian province of Yazd, said Mohammad Ali Malekzadeh, a local emergency official, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Another 23 people suffered injuries in the crash, 14 of them serious, he added. He said all the bus passengers hailed from Pakistan.

There were 51 people on board at the time of the crash outside of the city of Taft, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Iranian state television later broadcast images of the bus, turned upside down on the highway with its roof smashed in and all its doors open. Rescuers stepped gingerly through the broken glass and debris littering the road.

In the state TV report, Malekzadeh blamed the crash on the bus brakes failing and a lack of attention by its driver.

In Pakistan, media reports quoted a local Shiite leader, Qamar Abbas, saying as many as 35 people had died in the crash. He described those on the bus as coming from the city of Larkana in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed his condolences over the deaths.