RIYADH, 28 March 2008 — At least seven people were killed and 33 injured when a bus from Bahrain caught fire after being hit by a diesel tanker yesterday morning on the Riyadh-Qassim Highway at Jalajil, 130 kms from Riyadh.

“The bus was carrying about 48 passengers to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. It is not yet confirmed, but I was told some four Pakistanis have been killed,” said Habib Gilani, community welfare attache at the Pakistan Embassy in Bahrain.

“There were about 21 Pakistanis, 15 Indians and 12 Bangladeshis on the bus,” said Waqar Ahmed, spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Riyadh, who was looking into the accident.

Eyewitnesses saw passengers scrambling off the bus after it went up in flames. Many of the injured suffered severe burns.

“The accident happened around 11 a.m. The tanker’s driver managed to escape,” said Mohammed Nassser, an Indian worker.

Capt. Abdullah Al-Gafari, spokesman for the Civil Defense Directorate of the Riyadh region, confirmed that the driver had escaped. He added that the bus was hit from the back.

A statement issued by the Civil Defense said, “Five rescue teams and a few ambulances immediately attended to the crash victims.”

A number of serious accidents have been reported across the Kingdom recently.

Traffic authorities have registered more than 1.36 million accidents in the last five years leading to some 21,900 deaths and 122,600 injured.

Last year, about 5,000 people were killed in road accidents. Annual losses from road accidents are estimated at SR21 billion.

Gen. Fahd Al-Bishr, head of the Kingdom’s Traffic Department, said in a statement recently that Saudi Arabia spends SR734 million a year on medical care for people injured in accidents.