17 people killed, 41 injured in Pakistan truck crash - officials

KARACHI - At least 17 religious pilgrims were killed and 41 injured in a crash as they travelled to a shrine in southwestern Pakistan, officials said Thursday.

The crash happened around 10 pm on Wednesday night in the Hub district of Balochistan province, district deputy commissioner Munir Ahmed told AFP, confirming the toll.

"The truck was over-speeding, and it went out of the driver's control while negotiating a turn" and fell into a ravine in a mountainous town as they approached the shrine, he said.

The travellers were en route to a prayer site during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which is currently underway, he added.

"The driver jumped out of the truck and remains safe," he said.

Shaukat Jalbani, the deputy medical superintendent of Hub's main hospital, also confirmed 17 people had been killed and said most of the injured had been sent to nearby Karachi for treatment.

Early Thursday, an AFP photographer in the southern city saw workers unloading the shrouded bodies of those killed into a morgue.

Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit.

In January 2023, 41 people were killed when their passenger bus, which was also loaded with containers of flammable oil, plunged into a ravine in Balochistan province and burst into flames.