DADU, Sept 24: At least 30 people were killed and more than 100 injured when two passenger buses collided head-on near Sann on Indus Highway in the late evening hours on Saturday.

The impact of collision was so severe that its sound could be heard far away and villagers immediately reached the site. Eyewitnesses said due to darkness and absence of trained volunteers, the villagers found it difficult to rescue the occupants of the two vehicles in time. Later, the bodies of the victims were pulled out by cutting the buses’ structure.

The bodies of 25 victims were kept at a Sann hospital and those of five others sent to the Liaquat Medical University of Medical and Health Sciences, Hyderabad and Jamshoro.

The villagers said that when a Karachi-bound bus of Blue Lines (C-1297) reached near Amri bridge, it collided head-on with another bus of the LUMHS (E-0044), coming from the opposite direction, due to misjudgement of the drivers. The impact was so strong that the LUMHS bus was completely smashed.

The bus carried paramedical staff and students of the university who were going to Sehwan to attend the annual Urs celebrations of Qalandar Lal Shahbaz.

Volunteers of local social welfare organisations were later joined by Edhi volunteers.

Vice-Chancellor of the LUMHS, Prof Jan Mohammad Memon, and his team arrived on the spot where he helped arrange sending the victims to LUMHS.

According to him, the number of the dead could rise as darkness hampered rescue work.