The death toll from a collision between a bus carrying Afghan migrants returning from Iran and two other vehicles in western Afghanistan has risen to 78, provincial officials said on Wednesday.

In December last year, two bus accidents involving a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan killed at least 52. In March 2024, more than 20 people were killed and 38 injured when a bus collided with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in southern Helmand province.

Police in western Afghanistan’s Herat province say the accident was due to the bus’s ‘excessive speed and negligence’.

At least 73 people, including 17 children, were killed in a devastating traffic accident in western Afghanistan after a bus carrying recently deported Afghan migrants collided with a truck and a motorcycle late Tuesday night.