At least 10 killed in Iran as bus falls into ravine

TEHRAN: At least 10 people were killed on Saturday when a bus plunged into a ravine in Iran's western Lorestan province, state media reported.

“Aid and rescue teams have been dispatched to the area,“ Mohammad Ghadami, the provincial head of the Red Crescent Society, told state TV.

Lorestan is around 350 kilometres (220 miles) southwest of the capital Theran.

Iran has a poor road safety record, with more than 20,000 deaths in accidents recorded between March 2023 and March 2024, according to local media citing the Iranian judiciary's Forensic Medicine Organisation.

In August, at least 28 Pakistani pilgrims en route to Iraq for a Muslim religious ritual were killed when their bus crashed in central Iran.

And in June 2004, more than 70 people died in a massive fire caused by a collision between a gasoline tanker and a bus in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

The truck collided at night with the bus, which was stopped near a police station, setting six buses and five trucks ablaze in a radius of about 50 metres.