Horror as 76 dead including 17 children in fatal bus crash inferno

A horrific crash involving a passenger bus, truck and motorbike has left at least 76 people dead - among them 17 children. The bus exploded into flames after the vehicles collided in Afghanistan’s western Herat province on Tuesday night.

Everyone on board the bus is reported to have died, as well as two other people travelling in the other vehicles. The passengers on board the bus were refugees returning from Iran, following their deportation from the country. Photos of the crash site show the shocking consequences of the crash, with the bus completely burnt out and almost beyond recognition.

Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesman for the Herat provincial government, said: "Seventy-six citizens of the country lost their lives in the incident, and three others were seriously injured."

He added: "All the passengers were migrants who had boarded the vehicle in Islam Qala," a town near the Iranian border.

Police said the truck had been carrying fuel, which caused the subsequent catastrophic blaze.

The dead bodies were taken to a military hospital for storage, as the painful process of identifying the victims began. However, Mohammad Janan Moqadas, chief physician of Al-Farooq Army Corps Hospital said many of the bodies were "unidentifiable".

Herat police told the AFP agency that the crash was caused by the bus driver's "excessive speed and negligence".

Up to 1.5 million Afghan refugees have been sent back from Iran and Pakistan since the start of the year, according to the UN migration agency.

Both countries have hosted Afghan refugees for decades but have started to expel them en masse.

The tragic accident happened a day after Tehran announced a further 800,000 people would have to leave the country by next March.

The horror crash was described as one of Afghanistan's deadliest in recent years, the state-run Bakhtar News Agency reported.

Accidents are common in the country, in large part due to the poor state of roads following years of fighting and civil war.