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Nearly 60 killed in head-on collision between bus and oil tanker in Pakistan

Officials at a hospital in Karachi said they had received 57 bodies from the crash, which occurred when a bus collided with an oil tanker traveling the wrong way down the road.

By Fred Lambert

KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Dozens of people on a bus in Pakistan were killed after a collision with an oil tanker traveling on the wrong side of the road, medical officials say.

At least 57 bodies have been collected at Jinnah Hospital in Karachi, some burned beyond recognition and stuck together, Dr. Seemi Jamali said, according to the BBC.

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They were killed when the bus in which they rode collided with an oil tanker that was allegedly speeding down the wrong side of the road. The bus carried about 60 passengers. Some who rode on the roof of the vehicle saved themselves by jumping off before the crash, the BBC reports. According to Al Jazeera, a police official said a few passengers survived by leaping from windows.

The collision caused the bus to burst into flames, and the driver of the tanker reportedly fled the scene. Dr. Jamali said the death toll may rise.

The incident comes exactly two months after a bus and a truck collided on a Pakistani roadway near Khairpur, killing 50 people, mostly women and children.

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According to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, about 4,500 Pakistanis are killed in vehicular crashes each year since 2011.

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