At least 34 people were killed and 12 injured on Wednesday in a collision between a bus and a utility vehicle near Tamanrasset, in the far south of Algeria, Civil Protection announced.
The accident, followed by a gigantic fire, occurred around 4 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) when a commercial vehicle struck, according to the national gendarmerie, a bus, linking Adrar to the city of Tamanrasset, located about 2,000 km south of Algiers.
The Minister of Health, Abdelhak Saihi, went “in an emergency” to the wilaya (prefecture) of Tamanrasset “to inquire about the situation and take all the necessary measures for the care of the injured in the accident”, according to a press release from the ministry.
For his part, the wali (prefect) of Tamanrasset, Mohamed Boudraâ, visited the wounded, some of whom suffered from serious burns, taken care of at the “Mesbah-Baghdad” hospital in Tamanrasset, after having supervised their evacuation and that of the 34 deceased people, according to the official Algerian agency APS.
Three of the 12 wounded still hospitalized were able to leave this hospital, after having “received the necessary care”, the director of the establishment, Abdelkader Bika, told APS.
There are nine injured people with burns “to varying degrees”, according to the same source.
On an official visit to China since Monday, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune expressed “his deep affliction and sadness” and offered “his sincere condolences” to the families of the victims.
The accident occurred near the village of Outoul, about twenty kilometers west of Tamanrasset, a transit region for the transport of goods from the south of the country to the north, and vice versa.
The coach transported travelers between the two towns in the Algerian Sahara, Tamanrasset, a town of 150,000 inhabitants with an airport, and Adrar, which has around 65,000 inhabitants.
According to residents of the region contacted by AFP by telephone, the bus was about to resume its journey after dropping off passengers in the town of Outoul when a pick-up hit it violently, for a reason still unknown.
Samir Bouchehit, a national gendarmerie official, told the private Ennahar television channel that the pick-up, which was carrying cans of gasoline, was “driving in the opposite direction on the left lane”.
“The first elements of the investigation show that the responsibility lies with the driver of the pick-up, loaded with cans of gasoline which caught fire at the time of the collision, causing a major fire,” he said.
Most of the victims were burned alive, according to several local media which broadcast images of the bus engulfed in flames, with a man helplessly watching the huge fire.
Other pictures show the two vehicles involved in the accident completely charred and fire trucks and civil protection intervened on the scene. The condition of the two vehicles shows a particularly violent impact.
On videos broadcast in the afternoon, we can see the towing of the two vehicles which were removed from the road.
This is the deadliest accident in this region since the end of December 2020 when 20 people were killed and 11 others were injured when their vehicle, which was mainly carrying nationals of African countries, overturned near Tamanrasset.
Bordering Niger and Mali, the Tamanrasset region is a crossing point for illegal migrants from sub-Saharan African countries seeking to emigrate to Europe via Algeria.
The speed of motorists, including public transport drivers, is the main cause of road accidents in Algeria, according to the national delegation of road safety.
In 2022, Algeria recorded nearly 22,980 traffic accidents which left 3,409 dead and 30,479 injured, according to the national road safety delegate, Nacef Abdelhakim.
19/07/2023 17:03:55 Alger (AFP) © 2023 AFP
