LARKANA, April 30: Nine persons, including three school-going boys, drowned in an irrigation channel after a Shahdadkot-bound bus they were travelling in plunged into it on Wednesday.

The bus (Dadu 973-002) fell into the Rabi Shahk, running parallel to the Kutcha track of the flood protective embankment near Qubo Saeed Khan, some 100kms off here, after one of its front tyres burst.

Those who lost their lives in the tragic incident were travelling atop the roof of the bus. They were identified as Wahid Bakhsh Mochi, Akber Janveri, Nisar Ahmed Magsi, Nizamuddain, Mohammed Laique, Altaf Ahmed, Abdul Naveed, Aamir Hussain and Abdul Fatah.

Eight other passengers also sustained injuries.

Eyewitnesses blamed overloading for the accident, saying the driver had dumped sacks of grains on the roof of the bus.

Three of the deceased were wearing school uniforms and had barely boarded the bus at the time of the accident, they said.