A passenger bus in southern Pakistan collided with an oil tanker driving on the wrong side of the road, resulting in a fire that killed at least 62 people on Sunday, the Agence France-Presse reported.
The bus was headed to the town of Shikarpur when it "hit the oil tanker, which according to initial reports was coming in the wrong direction," Rao Muhammad Anwaar, a senior police official, told AFP.
After the crash, the bus was completely engulfed in flames, burning 62 victims beyond recognition. DNA samples were collected from the bodies for identification, including women and children, before sending them to a local morgue.
Four passengers were treated for minor injuries at Jinnah hospital in Karachi and later released, Dr. Semi Jamali told AFP.
Witnesses said the fire broke out seconds after the collision near Karachi city in the Sindh province.
"I was sitting on top of the bus when I saw a tanker hit it, and a minute later it caught fire," Ikhtiyar Ali told the news agency. "There were three of us on the roof of the bus. We jumped to the ground to save our lives."
Another passenger "bravely smashed the window from inside and rescued his family while the bus was on fire," Talib Husain, a relative of one of the victims, told AFP.
Deadly traffic accidents on Pakistan's highways are not uncommon, where many roads are crumbling and are traveled by reckless drivers. Last November, 57 people were killed after a bus crashed into a coal truck near Khairpur town in the Sindh province.
In April, another 42 people were killed in a collision involving a bus and a tractor-trailer in the same province.
Officials are not yet sure if in fact the tanker was headed in the wrong direction on the run-down road.
"We are trying to ascertain if the driver of the oil tanker was solely at fault or whether the bus driver also showed negligence," Anwaar told AFP.
