Syrian state media say a security forces bus collided with a civilian bus, killing 35, amid growing concerns over crumbling infrastructure.
damascus: The death toll from a crash between two passenger buses in Syria’s central-eastern desert region on Saturday has risen to 35, state media said.
News agency SANA also quoted a health ministry official as saying that 30 others were injured in a “collision between two passenger buses on the Damascus-Deir Ezzor road”.
The Interior Ministry said the accident occurred between “a bus carrying several personnel of the internal security forces and a civilian bus”, without specifying how many of the casualties were from its forces.
State media broadcast footage of the accident, including photos of a bus on fire and debris strewn across the highway.
Earlier this month, five people were killed and dozens of others, most of them Lebanese, were injured when a bus carrying pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia overturned on a highway in Daraa province in southern Syria.
Provincial authorities had suggested that speeding may have been a factor in the crash. After years of civil war and neglect, Syria’s infrastructure is crumbling and many of its roads are in need of repair.
Last year, at least 12 people were killed and several others injured when a bus and an oil tanker collided in northeastern Syria.
