PESHAWAR: At least 24 people, including women and children, were died in two separate traffic accidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Karak and Sindh's Nawabshah towns in Pakistan on Tuesday.

At least 17 people, including three children, burned to death in northwest Pakistan when a gas cylinder exploded on a bus after it collided with a truck, officials said.

The bus was carrying passengers to the city of Bannu when the collision happened on a highway around 140 kilometres (87 miles) from Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“The gas cylinder installed in the bus leaked after the accident and it caught fire,” said Dil Nawaz Khan, a senior government official in Karak city, where the accident happened.

“All 18 people on board were burnt and only one passenger could survive. His position is also critical,” he told AFP.

Hospital officials said six women and children were also among the dead.

“We received 17 dead bodies including the bodies of three children and as many women. Most of the dead bodies are badly mutilated and could not be identified,” Sarfraz Khan, a doctor at Karak's public hospital, told AFP.

Meanwhile, at least seven people died and 20 other injured when a bus rammed into a van near Nawabshah in southern province of Sindh.

Police said a passenger bus going from Karachi to Bannu collided with a van at Bypass Road near Nawabshah city. As a result seven people died on the spot.

Eyewitnesses said the van was being recklessly driven and its driver failed to apply brakes. However, drivers of both vehicles fled after the accident.

Pakistan has one of the world's worst records for fatal traffic accidents, blamed on poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.