TEHRAN: A pickup truck smuggling fuel crashed yesterday into a car carrying 15 Afghans in southeastern Iran, bursting into flames and killing all on board as well as three Iranians, media reported.
“The crash and fire claimed 15 Afghans who had entered the country illegally,” the state IRNA news agency quoted local official Sadeq Dadollahpour as saying.
He attributed the accident to the “excessive speed” of both vehicles. The Mehr news agency said the crash took place in Kerman province on a transit route for Afghans illegally crossing the border in the hope of finding work in the Islamic republic.
Nearly a million Afghans live in Iran illegally, according to official figures released in 2012.
Iran is one of the world’s deadliest countries for road accidents. Around 20,000 people are killed each year in a nation with a little over 17 million vehicles for its 75-million-strong population.
Agencies
