March 26, 2021 - 4:37 AM
DHAKA, Bangladesh - A speeding bus collided head on with another car, which hit a third vehicle, in a crash that killed at least 17 people in northwestern Bangladesh, a fire official said Friday.
The impact of the crash caused a gas cylinder on the second car to explode, burning the car and killing 13 passengers trapped inside it, said Abdur Rouf, a senior station official of the Fire Service and Civil Defence in the northwestern district of Rajshahi.
Three of the other four dead were on the bus, he said. Several others were injured and at least three were taken to a hospital with severe injuries, he said.
Police and local people recovered the charred bodies from the vehicles and sent them to the morgue of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
Road accidents in Bangladesh kill about 12,000 people a year and they are blamed on reckless driving, unfit vehicles and poor road condition.
Rajshahi is 254 kilometres (158 miles) northwest of the nation’s capital, Dhaka.
News from © The Associated Press, 2021