The loss of life toll from a bus crash in western Afghanistan has risen to 79, after two survivors died from their accidents, an interim Taliban administration official stated.
The incident occurred late on Tuesday in Herat province’s Guzara district, when a passenger bus carrying Afghan returnees from Iran struck a bike and a gasoline truck, triggering an enormous fireplace.
No less than 19 kids have been amongst these killed, Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesman for the interim Inside Ministry, instructed reporters in Kabul on Wednesday.
Mohammad Janan Moqadas, chief doctor on the navy hospital, stated many our bodies have been too badly burned to be recognized.
A journalist with the AFP information company reported that cleanup crews have been engaged on Wednesday to take away the burned-out bus and the twisted wreckage of the opposite autos.
“There was a number of fireplace… There was a number of screaming, however we couldn’t even get inside 50 metres to rescue anybody,” witness Akbar Tawakoli, 34, instructed AFP. “Solely three individuals have been saved from the bus. They have been additionally on fireplace and their garments have been burned.”
Abdullah, 25, one other witness, instructed AFP, “I used to be very saddened that many of the passengers on the bus have been kids and girls.”
Safety personnel stand guard on the website of a bus crash in Guzara district of Herat province on August 20, 2025 [Mohsen Karimi/AFP]
The bus was transporting Afghans just lately expelled from Iran to the capital, Kabul, provincial spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi stated. The central authorities has ordered an investigation.
“It’s with deep sorrow that we mourn the lack of quite a few Afghan lives and the accidents sustained in a tragic bus collision and subsequent fireplace in Herat province final night time,” it stated in an announcement.
Greater than 1.5 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan this 12 months alone, in keeping with the United Nations migration company, as each nations step up deportations after a long time of internet hosting Afghan refugees. Many arrive with little means and face dire circumstances in a rustic battling poverty and mass unemployment.
The state-run Bakhtar Information Company described the incident as certainly one of Afghanistan’s deadliest accidents lately.
In December 2023, two separate bus crashes involving tankers killed 52 individuals, whereas in March 2024, one other 20 died in a collision in Helmand province. In late 2022, a tanker overturned within the Salang Cross, igniting a hearth that killed 31.
