PESHAWAR, Sept 3: Eighteen people, including women and children, were killed and another was seriously wounded in a head-on collision between an oil tanker and a coach on the Indus Highway near the southern Karak district.

A police official told Dawn by phone that 14 passengers were killed on the spot, while four others died in a local hospital. The oil tanker driver escaped, while police arrested the cleaner.

According to the police, a speeding oil tanker (PP-0074) coming from Dera Ismail Khan hit a flying coach (LHR-8304) near Kanazai area in the jurisdiction of Banda Daud Shah police station.

The fatal accident occurred at about 10pm. Villagers and police rushed to the scene and retrieved the dead and the injured from the wreckage of the coach.