The Civil Protection announced that at least 34 people were killed and 12 others injured, Wednesday, July 19, in a collision between a vehicle and a commercial vehicle near Tamanrasset, in the far south of Algeria.
The source said that the accident, which was followed by a fire, occurred around 4 am when a bus linking Adrar to Tamanrasset, about two thousand kilometers from the capital, Algiers, collided with a service vehicle. The extraction and evacuation of the victims continues, according to the Civil Protection.
sequel after announcement
There is no information about the causes of the accident
The governor of Tamanrasset, Mohamed Boudraa, went to the General Hospital Mesbah-Baghdad in Tamanrasset to inquire about the health status of the 12 injured, who suffer from serious burns, according to the official APS news agency. The delegation of the state has already gone to the site of the accident to follow up on the evacuation of the victims and the wounded to Tamanrasset Hospital.
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The accident occurred near the village of Awtoul, twenty kilometers west of Tamanrasset, which is a transit area for the transportation of goods between the south of the country and the north.
According to the Civil Protection, the bus transported travelers between the two cities of the Algerian Sahara, Tamanrasset, a town with a population of 150,000, which has an airport, and Adrar, where about two thousand people live. The incident has not yet elicited official reactions while President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was in China on an important official visit. The official authorities did not provide any information about the circumstances of the accident and its possible causes.
sequel after announcement
The deadliest accident since 2020
Most of the victims were burned alive, according to a number of local media outlets that broadcast images of the bus on fire and a man helplessly watching the massive blaze.
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El accidente ocurrió a la altura del pueblo de Outoul, a vein a kilometer west of Tamanrasset, Transito Parra el Transpriti de Mercancias https://t.co/G4iOY3Mx9R– La Razon Digital (LaRazon_Bolivia) July 19, 2023
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Other pictures show the two cars involved in the accident completely charred, and firefighting and civil protection vehicles intervened at the scene. The condition of the two cars shows a particularly violent effect.
This is considered the deadliest accident in this region since the end of December 2020, when 20 people were killed and 11 others were injured when their car overturned near Tamanrasset.
sequel after announcement
Located on the borders of Niger and Mali, the Tamanrasset region is a transit point for illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa seeking to immigrate to Europe via Algeria. Speeding of motorists, including public transport drivers, is the main cause of road accidents in Algeria, according to the National Delegation for Road Safety, a government agency.
In 2022, Algeria recorded approximately 22,980 traffic accidents that left 3,409 dead and 30,479 injured, according to the National Delegate for Road Safety, Nassif Abdel Hakim.
