AHSA, 14 February - Thirty-seven Pakistanis were among 40 pilgrims who died in a major road accident in eastern Saudi Arabia yesterday as the luxury bus they were travelling in collided with a truck.
Informed sources told Arab News that the dead also included a Saudi, an Egyptian and a Syrian.
Ten other people were injured in the accident, which took place near Ahsa at 3:00 a.m. (0000 GMT). Another 12 passengers escaped unhurt.
The sources added that the accident occurred when the bus, carrying more than 60 pilgrims from the United Arab Emirates, collided head-on with a truck carrying heavy materials. Both drivers died on the spot. Saudi authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.
Both vehicles caught fire and many of the injured were burned alive, the sources said. Some of the bodies could not be recognized because they were so completely burned. The injured, some in a serious condition, were admitted to King Fahd Hospital in Houfuf.
Dr. Ahmad Al-Ali, health director in the Eastern Province, said most of the injured were stable.
A UAE official told Arab News by telephone that the bus started its journey from Al-Ain at around 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday. All the passengers were single Pakistani males.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a team will be dispatched to Houfuf to identify the bodies. "We are already trying to contact their families both here and in Pakistan," he said.
The accident occurred on UAE-Ahsa road after the Sila border. The bus was approaching Ahsa town and was trying to overtake another vehicle on the single-track road. Saudi Red Crescent Society ambulances and Civil Defense officers rushed to the scene. A Red Crescent official who was involved in the rescue operation said it was the most horrific accident he had ever witnessed.
Every year thousand of pilgrims enter the Kingdom from Qatar and the UAE through Ahsa. According to the authorities, this was the worst accident ever to have occurred on the road.
From Ahsa to Sila, a border town near UAE, the road is single lane and dangerous. The traffic department, in cooperation with the border forces and local volunteers, monitor the traffic on this road, especially during the Haj season.
Before the latest accident, more than two dozen buses full of pilgrims from Qatar and the UAE had passed safely through Ahsa.
