August 22, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 19, 1429

TEHRAN, Aug 21: At least 30 Afghans were killed and 83 injured when a truck overturned in southern Iran on Thursday, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Local medical official Mohammad Ali Ghanaat Pisheh told the news agency that the casualties were among a total of 125 Afghan illegal immigrants travelling in the 10-wheeler.

The cause of the early morning accident in the village of Khiareh in Fars province was still unknown, he added.According to state radio, two trucks were travelling together carrying Afghans, but only one of them was involved in the accident.

The Afghans had illegally crossed Iran’s south-eastern borders to make a living mainly by working on construction sites.

Each of the Afghans had paid $520 to human traffickers to transport them from Zahedan, the capital of the south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan to the southern city of Shiraz, the report said.

“This matter should be examined that how two trucks carrying humans have made it from Sistan-Baluchestan to Fars province,” the head of political department of the Shiraz governor office, Vahid Rajaie, was quoted as saying.—AFP