QALAT, Aug 21: As many as 20 people died and 27 others sustained injuries following a head-on collision between two passenger buses on the Kabul-Kandahar Highway.

The incident occurred in the Karez area, some three kilometres east of the Shar-i-Safa district of the southern Zabul province when a Kandahar-bound passenger bus collided with another coming from the opposite direction.

Zabul governor spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhel told Pajhwok Afghan News the dead including women and children, had been removed to the Shar-i-Safa hospital, while the injured had been rushed to hospitals in Qalat and Kandahar for emergency treatment.

Alikhel described the cause of the accident as over speeding and rash driving. He said police teams had been dispatched to help evacuate the dead and injured to hospitals.

The accident was so horrific that the two ill-fated vehicles were completely destroyed leaving many dead beyond recognition. Witnesses said the number of dead might go up as condition of many of the wounded was serious.

Dr Ihsanullah, an eyewitness, told the news agency that the two buses collided with a big bang. “Body parts of many victims scattered on the road while a large number lying in pool of blood.”

Many injured, stuck up in the destroyed vehicles, were moaning and crying for help while a number of other got unconscious, witnesses said. Shar-i-Safa police chief Ghulam Rasool Aka said the injured had been ferried to Qalat hospital for medical treatment.

Hafizullah, head of the nursing wing of the hospital, said they had received eight injured while a child, whose condition was serious, succumbed to his injuries soon after arriving here.—-Online