Syria bus crash kills at least 35, state media says

A crash between two passenger buses in a central-eastern desert region of Syria killed at least 35 people on Saturday, state media said.

The state news agency SANA, quoting a health ministry official, said 30 other people were injured in the collision on the Damascus-Deir Ezzor road. The interior ministry said the crash involved a bus carrying internal security forces personnel and a civilian bus. It did not say how many of the dead or injured were members of the security forces.

State media broadcast footage from the crash scene, including images of a bus on fire and debris scattered along the highway. It also reported that military helicopters had been used to airlift casualties.

Emergency and disaster management minister Raed Al Saleh described the crash as one of the deadliest road accidents in Syria in recent years by number of victims, according to SANA. He said the crash created a shared national responsibility to work to prevent similar incidents and showed an urgent need to address long-standing problems with the country's road infrastructure, which he said had been affected by years of neglect and damage to public service sectors.

State television quoted Moaz Najjar, the director of road transport in Damascus, as saying authorities had directed that road maintenance in the eastern region be treated as a priority. He said most roads were in disrepair and had not undergone maintenance for the past 15 years.

The crash followed other deadly bus accidents in Syria. Earlier in July, five people were killed and dozens were injured, most of them Lebanese, when a bus carrying pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia overturned on a highway in southern Syria's Daraa province. Last year, at least 12 people were killed and several others were injured when a bus collided with an oil tanker in northeastern Syria. In 2020, at least 32 people died when a fuel tanker crashed into two buses on a road between Damascus and Homs province.

After years of civil war and neglect, Syria's infrastructure is crumbling and many roads need repairs.