An overnight passenger bus and a fuel tanker collided early on Wednesday in western Iran, killing at least 13 people and injuring several others.

Iran’s Mehr news agency reported early on Wednesday that the tanker carrying tar crashed into the passenger bus in Sanandaj, a city in Iran’s Kurdistan province, about 400km west of capital Tehran.

According to highway police, the tanker ran into the bus on a highway near Sanandaj. Both vehicles burst into flames following the collision.

One of the two bus drivers who survived in the crash said that bus had stopped to pick up passengers when it was suddenly hit by the tanker.

Police said the tanker’s brakes failed, causing it to slam into the bus, AP news agency reported.

An official said at least nine people were injured in the crash.

Kurdistan province has declared three days of public mourning over the crash.

UNICEF said Iran’s rate of traffic crashes is 20 times the world’s average, as the country suffers from poor roads and lax traffic enforcement.

According to a May 2017 report by the Tehran-based newspaper, Financial Tribune, over 20,000 people are killed and 800,000 injured annually in road accidents in Iran.

Source : www.aljazeera.com