The seats from a bus that crashed during an excursion are scattered on the ground in the northern town of Amdoun, Tunisia. Photo: Reuters
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https://scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3040142/tunisia-bus-plummets-hill-killing-24-passengers-excursion-tourist Africa
Tunisia bus plummets off hill, killing 26 passengers on excursion to tourist spot
- Vehicle was carrying 43 people when it veered off a winding road after the driver failed to manoeuvre a sharp turn and crashed at the bottom of a ravine
The wreckage of a bus that crashed during an excursion is seen in the northern town of Amdoun, Tunisia. Photo: Reuters
A bus plummeted off a hill in Tunisia on Sunday morning, killing 26 passengers who were on an excursion in the country’s north, government officials said.
The regional bus, which was carrying 43 people and belonged to a private local company, veered off a winding road after the driver failed to manoeuvre a sharp turn and crashed at the bottom of a ravine, the Interior Ministry said.
The accident was one of the deadliest ever in a country whose poor road safety record has sparked criticism of officials. All those aboard the bus were Tunisian, the ministry said.
The age of the vehicle, more than 20 years old, and speeding were the suspected causes, a minister, Noureddine Selmi, told state television after an initial investigation.
Local media showed images of an overturned, crumpled bus with smashed windows at the foot of a hill.
Health Ministry spokesman Chokri Nafti said that the crash left 17 people injured. Some were rushed to the nearby Amdoun and Beja hospitals, while the more seriously injured were transported to specialised hospitals in Tunis.
Tunisian President Kais Saied visits the site of a bus crash in the northern town of Amdoun. Photo: Reuters
When it crashed, the vehicle was headed 185 kilometres (115 miles) west from capital Tunis to Ain Draham, a beautiful local tourist spot renowned for its mountainous reliefs on the border with Algeria. Ain Draham is located at an altitude of 800 metres (more than 2,600 feet) on the slopes of the Djebel Bir, one of the Kroumirie mountains.
Prime Minister Youssef Chahed interrupted a visit to the south of the North African country to return to the seat of government in Kasbah where a crisis centre has been set up.
Following the tragedy, the Tunisian Soccer Federation said it would observe a one-minute silence before all scheduled games on Sunday.
Tunisia’s poorly-maintained roads have a reputation for being deadly. Almost 1,100 people died in traffic accidents in 2018, according to a national observatory on road security.
The World Health Organisation in 2015 reported that Tunisia had the second-worst road death rate per capita in North Africa, behind only war-torn Libya.
Sunday’s accident triggered renewed public anger over what one social media user called the country’s “roads of death”.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse