Turkish truck carrying migrants crashes, 42 killed

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, May 19 (Reuters) Forty-two people died when a truck believed to be carrying Afghan illegal immigrants crashed with another truck on a highway in Turkey today, officials said.

Police and rescue workers lined dozens of bodies along the side of the motorway, which runs from Osmaniye to Gaziantep, awaiting the arrival of more ambulances in southeastern Turkey.

Regional Traffic Department Director Hasan Tugrul told Reuters 42 people had died and six were injured. He also said the truck was carrying Afghans.

''In the back of the truck tightly packed it is very likely were Afghan and Bangladeshi immigrants, who with the sudden crash, could have died piled up together,'' Osmaniye Governor Zubeyir Kemelek told state-run Anatolian news agency.

Turkey is a major transit route into Europe for illegal immigrants.

The Turkey Drivers and Motorists Federation said in February that 134,343 people had died and 2.2 million people were injured in traffic accidents in Turkey in the last 26 years.

In 2004, 3,082 people were killed in 494,851 accidents, but in 2005, the number of deaths went up to 3,215 people in 570,419 accidents.

REUTERS DKS KN2204