20 people burn to death in Pakistan road crash

Karachi, Oct 26: At least 20 people, half of them children and women, burnt to death in southern Pakistan today when a passenger bus fell into a ravine and caught fire, police said.

The bus skidded off the road and plunged into the ravine near the town of Rohri as the driver was trying to avoid a head-on collision with a car.

Rohri lies about 360 km northeast of Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi.

''The bus caught fire when it hit the ground. So far, 20 bodies have been recovered,'' police official Khalid Reza said.

He said rescuers had to cut through the twisted wreckage of the bus to remove dead bodies and injured persons.

The dead included five children and as many women.

Reuters