Eight French, four Moroccans killed in crash-agency

RABAT, Dec 3 (Reuters) Eight French nationals and four Moroccans were killed yesterday when a tourist coach was involved in a head-on collision with an articulated truck, the Moroccan MAP news agency reported.

Twenty-four people were injured in the accident, which occurred in the afternoon near the village of Benguerir in western Morocco on the main road between Casablanca and Marrakesh, the agency said.

The injured were taken to the military hospital in Marrakesh.

King Mohammed sent his condolence to the victims' families, the agency said, adding he had decided to pay hospital expenses for the injured, the costs of returning ''the remains of the dead of foreign origin'' and burial costs of the Moroccan victims, the agency said.

REUTERS SP PM1650