At least 28 people dead as bus carrying Shiite pilgrims crashes in Iran

A bus carrying Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq has crashed in central Iran, killing at least 28 people, an official said.

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

Another 23 people suffered injuries in the crash, 14 of them serious, he added.

Mr Malekzadeh said all the bus passengers came from Pakistan.

There were 51 people on board at the time of the crash outside the city of Taft, some 500 kilometres (310 miles) south east of the Iranian capital Tehran.

Iranian state television later broadcast images of the bus, turned upside down on the road with its roof smashed in and all its doors open.

Rescuers stepped gingerly through the broken glass and debris littering the road.

In the state TV report, Mr Malekzadeh blamed the crash on the bus brakes failing and a lack of attention by its driver.

In Pakistan, authorities described those on the bus as coming from the city of Larkana in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was “deeply saddened” by the crash and that diplomats were providing assistance to those affected.

“My thoughts are with the bereaved families,” Mr Sharif said on the social media platform X.

Iran has one of the world’s worst traffic safety records, with some 17,000 deaths annually.

The pilgrims were on their way to Iraq to commemorate Arbaeen, which marks the 40th day following the death of a Shiite saint in the 7th century.

Pilgrims gather in Karbala, Iraq, in what is regarded as the largest annual public gathering in the world.

The event draws tens of millions of people each year.

Iranian police said three million pilgrims had already left the country’s borders for Karbala.

A separate bus crash early on Wednesday in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province killed six people and injured 18, authorities said.