At least 20 people have died after a speeding bus smashed into an oil tanker while allegedly racing two other coaches.
The bus packed with passengers rammed into the back of the tanker on a motorway near the central city of Multan in Pakistan.
Police official Imran Shaukat said: “Three buses were racing. One of them rammed into an oil tanker.”
The horror crash sparked a blaze that engulfed both the tanker and the bus, the cop said.
The passengers were just a couple of hours into a long journey when the vehicle crashed.
Footage from the scene showed rescue workers scrambling to search for any survivors in the burnt-out wreckage of the bus.
Officials said at least 20 passengers burned to death and six people survived, according to Dunya TV.
A spokeman for the rescue service said: “Most bodies of the perished passengers are burnt completely and beyond recognition.
“These bodies will be handed over to the families after a DNA test.”
A rescue worker said most of the passengers were asleep at the time of the blaze on the bus bound for the southern port city of Karachi.
“The fire was raging when we got here,” he said.
The authorities said the tanker’s driver fled the scene following the crash.
Fatal road accidents are common in Pakistan – mainly due to speeding and poor road infrastructure.
In 2017, an oil tanker overturned and caught fire in the region, killing more than 100 people.
And in 2015 at least 62 people were killed in another crash involving a passenger bus and an oil tanker in the southern Sindh province.
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