At least 17 people were killed and dozens of others wounded when a bus travelling in northeastern Thailand veered off the road and smashed into a tree, authorities said Thursday.
The accident occured Wednesday evening in Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima province with the double decker bus carrying around 50 people returning home from a holiday.
“The current death toll is 17, and 33 are injured,” an official from the Nakhon Ratchasima provincial emergency medical service told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photos in local media of the accident’s aftermath showed part of the bus lying on its side and officials standing beside a row of body bags.
Among the injured, some 10 people are in critical condition and receiving care at a nearby hospital, the official added.
The head of the Nakhon Ratchasima disaster prevention and mitigation department said the bus driver lost control while the vehicle was going downhill, before it veered off the road and jumped a traffic island then smashed into a large tree.
“The bus was torn into two parts,” he said.
