35 killed, 30 injured in Syria bus collision

Thirty-five people were killed and 30 injured in a collision between two passenger buses on the Deir al-Zor-to-Damascus road, a health ministry official told state news agency SANA on Saturday.

The collision involved a bus carrying members of the Internal Security Forces and a civilian passenger bus, SANA reported, citing the interior ministry.

The interior ministry said the crash was between "a bus carrying a number of internal security forces personnel and a civilian bus", without specifying how many of the casualties were from its forces.

Defence Ministry helicopters helped evacuate the injured and recover the bodies, transporting them from Palmyra airport to a military hospital in Homs, SANA said.

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani offered condolences to the families of those killed and wished the injured a swift recovery.

State media broadcast footage of the crash, including images of a bus on fire and with debris strewn along the highway.

Earlier this month, five people were killed and dozens of others injured, most of them Lebanese, when a bus carrying pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia overturned on a highway in southern Syria's Daraa province.

Provincial authorities had suggested speeding may have been the cause of that crash. After years of civil war and neglect, Syria's infrastructure is crumbling and many of its roads in need of repairs.

Last year, at least 12 people were killed and several others injured when a bus collided with an oil tanker in northeastern Syria.