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Many dead in multi-vehicle collision on Damascus highway
Mar 9, 2020DAMASCUS, Syria – As many as 22 people were killed in a multi-vehicle collision after a fuel truck collided with two passenger buses and 15 other vehicles in Syria on Saturday (local time), local media said.
Earlier reports had said thirty people had died.
According to a source from police in Damascus, a fuel tanker collided with two passenger buses and other cars on the Damascus-Homs highway, reported Sputnik quoting a local media source.
The crash occurred near the Jisr Bagdad area between the Syrian capital Damascus and Homs province.
The number of people injured in the mishap has been so far confirmed at seventy.
Syria’s Interior Minister Mohammad Khaled al-Rahmoun told journalists while overseeing rescue efforts that the accident was caused by a malfunction in the tanker truck’s brakes, causing the driver to lose control of the truck which collided with two buses carrying Iraqi passengers and 15 passenger cars, killing twenty-two and injuring 70 others, SANA reported.
He noted that the final number of victims isn’t clear yet, as civil defense members were still removing the damaged vehicles from the site, adding that traffic is being diverted until the road is cleared, which should be done tonight.
(Photo credit: SANA).
