(Last Updated On: September 4, 2016)

At least 35 people were killed and 25 others wounded after a passenger bus crashed with a fuel tanker along a highway in southern Zabul province of Afghanistan on Sunday, local officials said.

Provincial governor Besmillah Afghanmal told Ariana News that the accident took place in Kabul – Kandahar highway in Shamlazo district of Zabul in the early morning.

He added that most of the dead bodies cannot be identified as they are badly burned.

Most of the passengers including women and children were travelling to Kabul for Eid holidays, the source continued.

At the same time Zabul police said that at least 34 passengers were killed and about 21 others wounded in the accident.

Afghan officials blame reckless driving as the main cause of road accidents in the country.</s>KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says at least 36 passengers died in collision between bus and fuel tanker in southern Zabul province.</s>KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: At least 50 people were killed early Sunday when a passenger bus struck a fuel tanker in a head-on collision in the southern province of Zabul, officials said.



“The passenger bus was on its way from Kandahar to Kabul when it collided with a fuel tanker. In the accident, 35 people were killed and more than 20 others were wounded,” Zabul’s Governor Bismillah Afghanmal told APP.</s>Official: 36 dead in bus-tanker collision in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says at least 36 passengers including women and children have been killed when their bus collided with a fuel tanker in southern Zabul province.

Gul Islam Seyal, spokesman for the provincial governor in Zabul, said Sunday that more than 25 others are seriously wounded with some in critical conditions.

The collision took place in Shar-e Safa district, on the main highway linking the capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar.

Seyal blamed both drivers for being reckless.

He says authorities will transfer critical patients to neighboring Kandahar province.

In May, 52 people were killed on the same highway in Ghazni province in a collision involving two buses and a fuel tanker.</s>At least 36 people were killed and 36 others injured, according to Gul Islam Sial, provincial spokesman for Zabul province, which is in the south of the country and neighbors Kandahar. The driver of the tanker was among the dead.

The collision on the Kandahar-Kabul highway occurred Sunday around 5 a.m. local time (8.30 p.m. Saturday ET), when the long-distance bus, which was carrying passengers from Kandahar to Kabul, collided with the tanker in the Shar e Safa area.

The spokesman said that the recklessness of the drivers caused the accident. The road is the main thoroughfare between Afghanistan's two largest cities and is used by trucks and passenger transport around the clock.

Some of the wounded were taken to hospital in Kandahar, he added.</s>At least 38 people were killed and 28 were injured in Afghanistan after a fuel tanker collided with a passenger bus, causing a massive explosion, local officials said on Sunday.

The incident took place on a major highway connecting the southern province of Kandahar with the capital city of Kabul.

Ghulam Jilani Farahi, deputy police chief of Zabul province where the accident occurred, said authorities could identify only six bodies and the rest were totally burnt.

Farahi said several women and children were among the victims in the bus that was carrying more than 60 people.

The driver of the oil tanker and a co-passenger died immediately after the truck burst into flames during the early morning hours on Sunday.

The Kabul-Kandahar highway passes through areas prone to militancy and many drivers are known to drive at top speeds in hopes of avoiding insurgent activity.

Afghanistan has some of the world’s most dangerous roads, often in dilapidated condition, and traffic rules are seldom enforced.</s>At least 35 people were killed on Sunday when a passenger bus collided with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in southern Afghanistan, in the latest road accident in the war-torn country.

Many of the victims, including women and children, were burned beyond recognition in the accident in Zabul province, one of the areas worst affected by the Taliban insurgency.

"The passenger bus was on its way from Kandahar to Kabul when it collided with a fuel tanker in Jildak area of Zabul," provincial governor Bismillah Afghanmal told AFP.

"In the accident, 35 people were killed and more than 20 others were wounded."

Some of the injured were rushed to hospitals in provincial capital Qalat as well as neighbouring Kandahar province, said Ghulam Jilani Farahi, deputy Zabul police chief.

The Kabul-Kandahar highway passes through militancy-prone areas and many bus drivers are known to drive recklessly at top speeds so as not to get caught in insurgent activity.

Afghanistan has some of the world's most dangerous roads, often in dilapidated condition and traffic rules are seldom enforced.

Many in the country rely on old and rickety passenger vehicles, meaning that high casualty road traffic accidents are common.

In May at least 73 people were killed Sunday when two passenger buses and an oil tanker burst into flames in a head-on collision in eastern Ghazni province, in one of the worst road accidents in the war-battered nation.

And in April 2013 a bus hit a wrecked fuel tanker in the southern province of Kandahar, killing 45 people.

The World Bank last November signed off a $250 million grant to upgrade roads crossing Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains, crucial trade links that are often closed in winter by snow.

Insecurity is growing across Afghanistan as the Taliban press on with their 15-year insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul government.

Afghan troops have struggled to stave off nationwide insurgent attacks since NATO forces ended their combat mission at the end of 2014.

Afghan forces backed by US troops are seeking to head off a potential Taliban takeover of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern opium-rich province of Helmand.

The Taliban have also closed in on Kunduz -- the northern city they briefly seized last year in their biggest military victory so far -- leaving Afghan forces stretched on multiple fronts.
At least 35 people are killed and 25 are injured after a bus crashes into a fuel tanker in Afghanistan's Zabul province.