Islamabad - Twenty-five people, most of them students, were killed and more than 48 injured on Friday when a bus and a tractor-trailer collided in Pakistan's central Punjab province, police said. The accident happened near the town of Lodhran, some 375 kilometres south-west of the provincial capital Lahore.
The bus transporting around 100 people, including schoolchildren, rolled over several times after ploughing into the articulated truck loaded with fertilizer.
"Twenty-five people, including 20 students, died on the spot while more than 48 others were injured," said Khurram Ali, the police chief in Lodhran.
Ali said the casualty toll was high because the bus was carrying passengers beyond its capacity and many people had climbed up on to the vehicle's roof.
Rescuers arriving at the scene faced difficulties in retrieving the dead and injured from the badly crumpled bus.
The victims, many of them in critical condition, were taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Bahawalpur.
Hospital authorities feared the death toll could rise further.
Police said the precise cause of the accident was yet to be established but apparently the bus driver lost control of the vehicle due to speeding. The driver of the tractor-trailer escaped after the crash.
