59 killed as bus crashes into oil tanker in southern Pakistan

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A Pakistani policeman examines a burned oil tanker that hit a passenger bus on a highway near Karachi.

(Asif Hassan / AFP/Getty Images)

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Rescue crews search the wreckage of a burned passenger bus that hit an oil tanker on a highway near Karachi, Pakistan.

(Fareed Khan / Associated Press)

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Relatives of bus crash victims mourn outside a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. (Fareed Khan / Associated Press)

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Rescue workers gather the bodies of bus crash victims in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. (Fareed Khan / Associated Press)

By Zulfiqar Ali

Jan. 10, 2015 9:11 PM PT

reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan —

An oil tanker collided with a passenger bus in southern Sindh province early Sunday morning, leaving 59 people dead, police and hospital sources said.

The accident took place about 30 miles northeast of the port city of Karachi at about 1 a.m. local time.

The bus carrying more than 60 passengers was on its way to Shikarpur in Sindh province when it collided with an oncoming, loaded oil tanker, officials said.

Police said those who were sitting atop the bus survived while all passengers riding inside the bus were burned alive.

Semi Jamli, spokesperson for Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital, told reporters that 57 bodies were brought to the hospital. However, rescue workers said the death toll had reached 59.

Jamli said bodies were burned beyond recognition. She said identification of some bodies was possible only through DNA testing.

Police said the coach and tanker caught fire after the collision, and that passengers sitting atop jumped off to save their lives.

Bodies were being shifted to a mortuary of Edhi Foundation, a social welfare organization, for identification. Women and children were among the dead.

Gul Hassan, whose relatives were also on board, told media in the hospital that he had lost nine family members.

Ali is a special correspondent.