Bus accident with Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq in Iran: At least 28 people die

A bus carrying Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq crashed in central Iran. At least 28 people were killed, an official said on Wednesday.

The crash occurred on Tuesday evening in the central Iranian province of Yazd, said Mohammad Ali Malekzadeh, a local emergency official, according to the state news agency IRNA.

Another 23 people were injured in the accident, 14 of them seriously, he added. He said all the bus passengers were from Pakistan.

At the time of the crash outside the city of Taft, about 500 kilometers southeast of the Iranian capital Tehran, there were 51 people on board.

Iranian state television later broadcast images of the bus overturned on the highway, its roof smashed in and all doors open. Rescue workers carefully walked through the broken glass and debris that littered the road.

In the state television report, Malekzadeh blamed the accident on the bus's failing brakes and the driver's lack of attention.

In Pakistan, media reports quoted local Shiite leader Qamar Abbas as saying that 35 people died in the accident. He described the bus passengers as being from the city of Larkana in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed his condolences over the deaths.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of precious lives in the bus accident in Iran,” he said.

Iran has one of the world's worst road safety records, with around 17,000 deaths annually. The high death toll is attributed to widespread disregard for traffic rules, unsafe vehicles and inadequate emergency services in the vast rural areas.

The pilgrims were on their way to Iraq to commemorate the Arba'in festival.

Arbaeen – the Arabic word for the number 40 – marks the death of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the hands of Muslim Umayyad forces at the Battle of Karbala in the turbulent first century of Islamic history. Hussein was considered the Prophet's rightful heir by his followers. When he refused to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad Caliphate, he was killed in battle, sealing the split between Sunni and Shia Islam.

Pilgrims gather in Karbala, Iraq, for the world's largest annual public gathering. Each year, the event attracts tens of millions of people.

Another bus crash early Wednesday in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan left six people dead and 18 injured, authorities said.