AIBAK (Pajhwok): At least 43 people, including women and children, were killed and another threewounded in a bus-truck collision in the Hazrat Sultan district of northern Samangan province on Thursday night.
On its way from northern Balkh province to Kabul, the ill-fated public transport bus crashed into a truck on a bridge, Hazrat Sultan district chief, Sirajuddin Fitrat, told Pajhwok Afghan News.
He said the bus veered off the bridge and plunged 15 metres deep into the river in the district centre at around 5pm.Up to 43 people were killed and three others wounded in the crash.
A statement from the ministry of defence said 80 personnel of the 209th Shaheen Military Corps immediately reached the area with ambulances, cranes and other equipment to rescue the victims.
The dead bodies and wounded people were taken by the security and defence forces of the country to the Samangan Civil Hospital, a statement from the ministry said.
However,Traffic Director Lt. Col. Abdul Aleem said 24 people, including 17 men, three women and four children, were killed in the accident while 19 others -- 16 men, a woman and two children -- were injured.
Samangan Public Health DirectorAbdul Hameedconfirmed receiving 24 dead and 19 injured people at the civil hospital in Aibak.
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