In a tragic incident in western Afghanistan, a bus carrying Afghan refugees who had just returned from Iran collided with a motorcycle and a tanker truck on Tuesday (August 19), causing a fiery explosion that resulted in at least 79 deaths.
According to reports from various media outlets, Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesperson for the Afghan Ministry of Interior, announced on Wednesday (August 20) that the death toll from this serious traffic accident in Herat province had risen to 79, including at least 19 children, after two survivors succumbed to their serious injuries.
The Herat province emergency department stated that many of the victims’ bodies were severely burned and could not be identified.
The accident occurred on Tuesday night local time in the Guzara area on the outskirts of Herat city. At that time, a bus filled with Afghan refugees who had been deported from Iran was traveling along a road in the Guzara area when it collided with a motorcycle and then crashed into a tanker truck. The powerful impact caused the vehicles to catch fire and the bus was instantly engulfed in flames.
The scene at the accident site depicted a charred bus with only its frame remaining, a harrowing sight that deeply affected onlookers.
Witness Akbar Tawakoli told AFP, “When we arrived at the scene of the accident, we heard a lot of chaos inside the bus, people were screaming continuously, but no one dared to approach the bus because the fire was too intense.”
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, a spokesperson for the Herat provincial government, stated on Wednesday that the bus was preparing to transport these recently deported Afghans from Iran to the capital, Kabul.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the United Nations, over 1.5 million Afghan refugees have returned from Iran and Pakistan since the beginning of this year. These two countries, after hosting them for decades, are now forcing them to leave.
The Afghan official Bakhtar News Agency pointed out that this is one of the deadliest accidents in recent years in Afghanistan. Local media citing officials stated that the raging fire sparked by the accident was the primary cause of the deaths of numerous passengers at the scene.
Local police indicated that the cause of the accident is currently under investigation.
Over the years, Afghanistan has faced ongoing instability, with severely damaged roads, slow construction progress, dangerous driving, and lack of regulations leading to frequent traffic accidents.