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20 killed in road accident in Bangladesh

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-07 20:06

DHAKA -- Twenty people were killed and at least nine others injured on Monday morning when a bus plunged into a roadside ditch after a head-on collision with another bus in Bangladesh's eastern Comilla district, about 96 km southeast of the capital Dhaka.  

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Local sources were quoted by private news agency UNB as saying that the accident took place on the highway connecting the capital Dhaka and southeastern port city Chittagong.

A Dhaka-bound bus from southeastern Feni district collided with another bus from the opposite direction and fell into the water- filled ditch along with 40 passengers at about 9 a.m. local time.

Highway police and fire fighters recovered 19 bodies from the sunken bus with the help of local people.

At least 10 passengers of the other bus were injured during the collision. The injured were admitted to a local hospital, where a woman died later.

The rescue workers said the death toll is likely to go up, as more passengers are trapped inside the bus. Many of the passengers managed to swim ashore.