At the least 16 individuals have been killed and 4 others injured after a passenger bus collided head-on with a gas tanker truck on Indonesia’s Sumatra island.
Rescuers attempt to extinguish a hearth after a passenger bus collided with a gas truck in Musi Rawas, South Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Might 6, 2026. (AP Picture) (Picture: AP)
A passenger bus collided head-on with a gas tanker lorry on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, killing not less than 16 individuals and injuring 4 others, officers mentioned.
The horrific crash occurred on Wednesday, Might 6, at round noon on the Trans-Sumatra Freeway in North Musi Rawas regency of South Sumatra province. The intercity bus was carrying not less than 20 individuals when it struck a tanker lorry travelling in the other way, mentioned Mugono, a neighborhood catastrophe administration company official.
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Mugono, who makes use of a single title like many Indonesians, mentioned preliminary findings recommend the bus — which was travelling from South Sumatra’s Lubuklinggau metropolis to Jambi — could have emitted sparks shortly earlier than the collision.
This will likely have prompted the motive force to steer the automobile in direction of the suitable aspect of the highway in an try to forestall a extra critical incident. Nonetheless, an oil tanker lorry was approaching at excessive velocity, leaving little time to keep away from a direct influence.
The forceful influence triggered a hearth that engulfed each autos, leaving many victims trapped inside,” Mugono mentioned.
The useless embrace the bus driver and 13 passengers in addition to the tanker’s driver and assistant, all of whom burned to dying contained in the autos, Mugono mentioned.
4 bus passengers survived the crash and have been taken to a close-by well being clinic, together with three who suffered extreme burn accidents and one who sustained minor accidents, Mugono mentioned.
Because the passenger manifest continues to be being traced, Mugono mentioned authorities are persevering with to assemble knowledge on the complete dying toll.
Photographs and photographs launched by the Nationwide Search and Rescue Company confirmed firefighters tackling the blaze as thick clouds of black smoke and orange flames billowed into the sky.
On the bottom lay the burnt-out stays of the bus and tanker lorry, with twisted steel strewn throughout the carriageway.
Rescue staff, together with catastrophe response officers and visitors police, evacuated victims and cleared the wreckage, although a number of people have been trapped contained in the autos, hampering rescue efforts and inflicting important disruption to visitors alongside the freeway, Margono mentioned.
Editorial use solely. HANDOUT/HANDOUT /NO SALESMandatory Credit score: Picture by BPBD MURATARA/HANDOUT/EPA/Shutterstock (16861960d)A handout picture made accessible by the North Musi Rawas Regional Catastrophe Mitigation Company (BPBD) reveals rescuers spraying water onto the wreckage of a burned passenger bus following a collision with a gas tanker truck in North Musi Rawas Regency, South Sumatra, Indonesia, 06 Might 2026. In keeping with North Musi Rawas (Muratara) BPBD, the bus caught fireplace after colliding with a gas tanker truck, killing not less than 16 individuals.At the least 16 killed in collision between passenger bus and gas tanker in South Sumatra, North Musi Rawas, Indonesia – 06 Might 2026 (Picture: BPBD MURATARA/HANDOUT/EPA/Shutterstock)
Sixteen physique baggage containing the stays of victims have been acquired at Siti Aisyah Hospital in Lubuk Linggau for identification, North Musi Rawas’ visitors police chief Muhammad Karim confirmed on Thursday.
He acknowledged that South Sumatra police mentioned Catastrophe Sufferer Identification groups have so far confirmed the identities of 5 victims, together with the bus driver, two bus crew members, the tanker driver and one passenger. The remaining 11 victims have but to be recognized as forensic groups press on with their work.
“All of the our bodies are severely burned, which has difficult the identification course of,” Karim mentioned, including that they’re being processed earlier than being transported by land to Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Palembang, the provincial capital, for autopsies.
He retracted his earlier preliminary findings, stating that police investigators now imagine the bus veered into the oncoming lane whereas trying to swerve round a pothole, triggering the head-on collision and subsequent blaze.
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