Algeria road accident kills at least 34 after bus catches fire

Fourteen were injured in the accident

The bus and pickup truck were involved in a head-on collision on Algeria's RN1 motorway. Photo: Directorate of Civil Protection

At least 34 people were burnt to death after a bus caught fire following a collision with a pickup truck in southern Algeria on Wednesday.

Fourteen others were injured, the civil defence agency said on Facebook.

The accident occurred on the RN1 motorway near the town of Tamanrasset, about 2,000km south of the capital, Algiers.

Charred bodies were recovered from the bus, local media reported.

Traffic accidents are common in the North African country, often due to speeding.

Algeria recorded about 23,000 road accidents in 2022 that killed 3,409 and left more than 30,000 injured, according to its road safety chief Nacef Abdelhakim.

In December 2022, at least nine people were killed and 46 injured when a passenger bus overturned in the eastern part of the country.

A month earlier, 16 people – including 13 Guineans and one Malian – were killed and three were injured in another accident.