KHAIRPUR, Nov 16: At least 17 people were killed and 30 others injured in an accident involving two buses on the National Highway near Rasoolabad in Khairpur district on Saturday night.

According to eyewitnesses, the driver of a Karachi-bound bus lost control while trying to overtake another vehicle. His bus rammed into a bus coming from the opposite direction.

People from nearby villages and Motorway Police personnel rescued the injured and took them to hospitals in Hingorja, Ranipur and Gambat towns.

Some of the passengers who died were identified as Mehdi Dino Bhelar (from Ranipur), Akhtari Begum (Padidan), Naveed Ahmed (Quaidabad, Karachi), Fazluddin, Mohammad Yar Mughal and his son Sher Mohammad (from Layyah), Allah Bux Arain, Haq Nawaz (Layyah), Mohammad Ajmal (Chakwal), Jamila, wife of M. Shafi (Karachi), Khuda Bux and his wife Aisha (Bhakkar), M. Ramzan (Layyah) and bus driver Haq Nawaz.

The injured included Sadaf Khatoon, Adnan, Saeeda Begum, Irfan Ahmed, Nadeem Abbasi, Javed Iqbal, Shahzeb, Izhar Ali, Asif Ali, Saleem, Zubair Ahmed, Farooque Ahmed, Gullan Bhelar, Sumair Hussain and Jameela.

Our Sukkur correspondent adds: Hundreds of local people went to the hospitals to donate blood and provide food to the injured.Emergency was declared in the hospitals and doctors were called on duty immediately.