TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- At least 27 people were killed and several injured, after a fuel tanker crashed into a bus in western Iran overnight Tuesday.
Images posted on social media showed the burnt-out passenger bus, with flames lining the highway after the crash.
Iran's Mehr agency reported that the tanker crashed into the bus on a highway near Sanandaj, a city in Iran's Kurdistan province. Both vehicles burst into flames following the collision, according to highway police.
One of the two bus drivers that survived the crash told Mehr the tanker slammed into his vehicle after it stopped behind a truck in order to pick up passengers. Police say the tanker's brakes failed.
In response to the crash, Iran’s Kurdistan province declared three days of public mourning.
According to the United Nations, the number of road accidents in Iran is 20 times the world's average.
While its roads are in generally good shape, Iran has a poor record on traffic safety, with accidents caused by reckless drivers killing thousands of people each year.
On average more than 20,000 people are killed and 800,000 injured every year in accidents on Iran's roads.