Bus crash in central Algeria kills 11, injures 25

ALGIERS, ALGERIA (BNO NEWS) -- A head-on collision between a passenger bus and a truck in Algeria's central region killed eleven people and injured more than two dozen others, civil protection officials in the North African country said Monday. The cause was not immediately known.

The accident occurred just before 6 a.m. local time on Sunday on National Road RN 56 between the cities of Ouargla and Touggourt in the central region of Algeria. It happened when a passenger bus driving from the capital Algiers to Ouargla collided head-on with a semi-trailer truck.

Civil protection officials said eight people died at the scene of the accident while three others died after being taken to a hospital in Ouargla, which serves as the capital city of the province that carries the same name. Twenty-five other people were injured, some of whom were in a critical condition.

Among those killed were three women and a two-year-old child.

The cause of Sunday's accident in the Sahara Desert was not immediately known. Road accidents kill around 4,000 people each year in Algeria, which serves as a gateway between Africa and Europe but has been battered by violence over the past half-century. The Sahara desert covers more than four-fifths of land.

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