A bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims crashed into a truck in southern Iran, resulting in at least three deaths and 48 injuries, state media reported on Monday.
The incident occurred late on Sunday on the main road between Neyriz city in Fars province and Sirjan in Kerman province.
The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, stated that the accident was caused by a technical failure in the bus’s brakes and the driver’s inability to control the vehicle. A Fars traffic police official, Colonel Abdol Hashem Dehghani, confirmed that the crash was due to a “technical failure” in the brakes and the driver’s lack of control over the vehicle.
The report did not specify the exact number of people on board the bus at the time of the incident.
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The IRNA which quoted an official from the Iranian Red Crescent stating that 28 people were injured in the incident. This suggests a discrepancy in the reported number of injured people between the two Iranian news sources.
Furthermore, the report notes that this was the second road accident involving Pakistani pilgrims in less than a week in Iran. The previous incident occurred in Yazd city, where a crash killed 28 people who were traveling to Iraq for the Arbaeen observance. The bodies of the 28 killed pilgrims were repatriated to Pakistan on a special flight on Friday night.