NAWABSHAH: At least 17 schoolchildren and three other people were killed and 14 seriously injured when a school van and a dumper truck collided on the Nawabshah-Qazi Ahmad link road on Wednesday.

The accident took place when the truck suddenly appeared onto the road at a place about 15km from here.

The students of the Bright Future Public High School, Daulatpur, and their teachers were returning after participating in a quiz competition held by a private publisher at the H.M. Khoja Auditorium.

At least 13 people, most of them students, died on the spot and 21 others were severely injured. People in other vehicles rescued the injured and took them to hospital. The driver of the dumper escaped.

The injured were brought to the Peoples University Medical Hospital where seven of them died.

Wailing parents and relatives of the children and a large number of local people gathered at the accident site and the hospital and donated blood.

The injured were admitted to the intensive care, neurosurgery and orthopaedic units. The condition of four students in the ICU was critical.

The bodies were handed over to the families of the victims after autopsy.

The students killed in the accident are Syed Israr and his sister Iqra, Atif Hussain, Sadia Bibi, Humera, Yaseen Masood, Hamza, Nouman, Fariha Akram, Mansoorul Haq, Fariha Jamshed, Anees, Yaseen Arain, Uffaq, Arbaz, Hasees, Moazam. Teachers Sharmeen and Qari Bashir and the van’s driver Sachal Korai were also killed.

The school’s principal Zakia Khanzada was among the injured.

Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister for Auqaf Ziaul Hassan Lanjar visited the hospital and told reporters that an investigation had been ordered. He announced a compensation of Rs500,000 for each of the deceased.

Provincial Education Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said in a statement that all possible medical facilities would be provided to the injured.

Shaheed Benazirabad Deputy Commissioner Abdul Aleem Lashari announced a local holiday on Thursday. The Quaid-i-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology; Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University and Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences will also remain closed.

The Daulatpur town was completely closed after the incident and people started gathering at the residences of the victims.

MNA Faryal Talpur instructed the chief minister’s adviser to shift the critically injured students to the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.

According to AFP, a doctor said the children killed in the accident were aged five to 16 years.