Ghazni: According to a provincial official on Thursday, at least 52 people were killed and 68 injured in two bus accidents with a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan.
Hamidullah Nisar, the provincial administrator of information and culture, stated on X that the accidents occurred in Ghazni province late Wednesday on the same highway that connects southern Kandahar city with the capital Kabul. He did not provide an exact number of fatalities or injuries from each accident.
Nisar told reporters outside a hospital in Ghazni city where casualties had been brought, “There is a possibility the numbers could rise.”
He mentioned that some of the injured had been taken to Kabul for treatment since they were in a “critical condition.” “Children, women, and the elderly were among the injured and deceased,” he continued.
According to Nisar, two buses struck a truck in the eastern district of Andar and a petrol tanker close to Shahbaz hamlet in central Ghazni.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief government spokesperson, wrote on X that an investigation will be started and that the authorities expressed “great regret” for the accidents.
An eyewitness reported seeing pieces of metal and shattered glass scattered around the Andar neighborhood, along with the clothing and food of bus passengers, as teams labored to remove debris from the sites into the morning.
Khadim, one of the injured in the Shahbaz tragedy, claimed that the crash’s noise startled him awake before he passed out.
He “saw there were a lot of people under the vehicle and on the ground around us, there was crying and blood everywhere” as he regained consciousness and managed to free himself from the wreckage.
