12 killed, four injured as tractor slides into water in southern Afghanistan

Kabul, Aug 22 As many as 12 people lost their lives and four others sustained injuries as a tractor slid into a river in the southern Afghanistan Helmand province on Friday, provincial Director for Information and Culture, Hafiz Abdul Bari Rashid said.

The deadly accident took place in Garmsir district, claiming the lives of three women and nine children on the spot and injuring four others, all children, the official added, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Security personnel reached the site of the accident on time and rescued 14 others, the official said.

In Afghanistan's countryside, the villagers often use tractors and animals as instruments to transport people and agricultural products.

Meanwhile, at least 24 commuters were injured as a passenger bus collided with a truck in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province on Thursday night, provincial police spokesman Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Burhani said Friday.

The mishap took place on a road linking the capital city of Kabul to the northern Mazar-i-Sharif city, leaving 24 travellers injured, some in critical condition, the official added, saying all the injured had been shifted to a hospital in the provincial capital, Pul-e-Khumri city.

This is the second incident of its kind over the past couple of days.

Earlier this week, at least 64 commuters have been killed and three others sustained injuries in a deadly road mishap in western Afghanistan's Herat province, head of the rescue department in the province, Abdul Zahir Noorzai, said Wednesday.

The accident took place on Tuesday night after a passenger bus collided with a motorbike and a mini-truck on a road linking the neighbouring Iran to Herat city in Afghanistan.

The majority of the victims, including women and children, were Afghan refugees who returned from Iran to settle in their homeland, Afghanistan, according to the official.

In the meantime, another official, on the condition of anonymity, said that the passenger bus caught fire and many bodies could not be recognised.

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