Eight people, including women and children, were killed when a passenger coach overturned on the motorway and plunged into a ditch near Rohri on the on Sukkur-Multan motorway.

The passenger coach was on its way from Swat to Karachi when it overturned during a sharp turn after the driver apparently lost control and the vehicle plunged into a ditch.

The coach was completely destroyed and eight people, including 4 women and 2 children, lost their lives on the spot while more than 20 people including women and children were injured.

Shortly after the accident, Edhi and other rescue officials rushed to the site and immediately started rescue operations and took the dead bodies and injured to Rohri Hospital.

The injured were moved to the Rohri Hospital where an emergency had been declared with the condition of some of the injured critical.

Earlier in the day, at least 20 people lost their lives as a passenger bus caught fire after a collision with an oil tanker at the Multan-Sukkur Motorway in tehsil Jalalpur Pirwala.

All the casualties have been shifted to Nishtar Hospital, Multan.

The bus was supposed to reach Karachi via Sukkur, Moro, and Hyderabad in 16 hours.

Road accidents on the super highway linking Karachi to interior Sindh and Punjab and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces take place frequently due to rash driving and lax checking of safety measures in the passenger buses which are mostly privately owned.