KHAIRPUR, Nov 22: More than 30 people were injured, one of them seriously, when a Karachi-bound coach overturned on National Highway near Therhi town late on Tuesday night. Passengers blamed reckless driving by the driver for the accident.

Police personnel from Babarloi, A-section, motorway and Edhi volunteers rushed to rescue the passengers and moved the injured to the civil hospital of Khairpur. The driver Zafarullah Jatt ran away after the accident.

The hospital administration announced emergency and recalled all its staff to attend to the injured but many complained of inefficiency and their relatives shifted them to Sukkur and hospitals in other areas.

They also complained that many of their valuable belongings were missing after the accident. Twenty-two of the injured passengers, identified as Dildar Mughal, Mukhtiar Mughal (Mansehra), Mohammad Zafar and Qurban Mangrio (Rahim Yar Khan), Mohammad Sajjad (Rawalpindi), Mohammad Shahbaz Bhatti and Riaz Hussain Bhatti (Karachi), Mohammad Saleem Buriro, Akhtar Hussain Buriro and Riaz Kalwar (Khanpur Katora), Ghulam Yasin Kehal and Mohammad Aslam Khokhar (Aoch Sharif), Ms Tasleem Arain (Hyderabad), Zameer Hussain (Khanpur, Punjab), Nadeem Hussain Rind (Thari Mirwah), Khursheed Ahmed Shaikh (Moro), Ms Shazia (Karachi), Ms Saira Arain, Salman Malik, Adnan, Mohammad Ahsan and Rehan Najam were admitted to the civil hospital and many of them were discharged after first aid.

The condition of Ms Shazia is said to be serious.

In another accident, Ashiq Hussain Lashari of Mall Road Khairpur was killed after a truck (No. 0069) hit him.