At Least 91 Dead In Iran Road Crash
"Ninety bodies have been recovered," a Red Crescent official in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, told the student news agency ISNA.
"The death toll could rise further," he was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The Red Crescent and the emergency services were rushed to the scene immediately after the accident with ambulances and medical equipment, and according to the latest information 114 injured have been taken to hospital in Zahedan," the official said.
Haidar Ali Nourai, governor of Zahedan, told state television that the "disaster is so grave we cannot identify faces and cannot differentiate between corpses."
Television showed bodies charred beyond recognition. A gold watch was seen stuck to an arm scorched to the bone.
He said the accident happened when the truck was unable to stop and plowed into a bus waiting at Nosratabad police checkpoint.
The fireball then enveloped six buses and five other trucks, two of which were carrying tar, causing a massive conflagration.
Nosratabad lies on the road from Zahedan to Bam, which was hit in December by massive quake that killed an estimated 26,000 people.
Bam’s ancient citadel, a world architectural heritage site, was leveled by the tremor.
Around 200 people were killed and hundreds injured Wednesday, February 18, when runaway rail wagons loaded with an explosive *censored*tail of sulphur, petrol and fertilizer derailed and blew up in northeast Iran .
