2025 Herat road crash
| 2025 Herat road crash | |
|---|---|
 Location of Herat Province within Afghanistan | |
| Details | |
| Date | 19 August 2025 c. 8:30 p.m. AFT (UTC+04:30) |
| Location | Guzara District, Herat Province, Afghanistan |
| Coordinates | 34°10′21″N 62°4′57″E / 34.17250°N 62.08250°E |
| Incident type | Head-on multi-vehicle collision (bus, motorcycle and truck) |
| Cause | Under investigation; excessive speed of the overcrowded bus (according to police) |
| Statistics | |
| Bus | Type "580" |
| Vehicles | 3 |
| Passengers | Unknown (deported Afghans from Iran) |
| Deaths | at least 79 |
| Injured | 2 |
On 19 August 2025, a passenger bus carrying deported migrants from Iran caught fire after it collided with a motorcycle and a truck and veered off a road in Guzara District, Herat Province, Afghanistan, killing at least 79 people, including 19 children, and injuring 2 others. It was one of the country's deadliest road crashes of the decade.
Background
[edit]Road transport in Afghanistan
[edit]
Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, primarily due to poor road conditions after decades of ongoing internal conflict, driver carelessness, and lack of regulation;[1] in December 2023, two separate bus collisions involving tankers killed 52 people; in March 2024, another 20 died in a crash in Helmand Province; in late 2022, a tanker caught fire after overturning in the Salang Pass, causing 31 fatalities; in December 2024, two highway accidents in the southeast of the country killed a total of 50 people and injured 76.[2][3] In addition, the Herat–Islam Qala highway, an extension of the Afghanistan Ring Road and where the collision happened, is considered one of the country's most dangerous routes.[4][5]
Mass deportation of Afghans from Iran
[edit]About 1.8 million Afghans have been forcibly returned from Iran in 2025, with an additional 184,459 deported from Pakistan and over 5,000 from Turkey since the start of the year. Around 10,000 Afghan prisoners, mostly from Pakistan, have also been repatriated. The bus was traveling to the capital Kabul as part of a large-scale operation to remove Afghans from Iran initiated after the Iran–Israel war in June.[6][2] The crash took place a day after Iranian Minister of Interior Eskandar Momeni announced that 800,000 more people would have to leave the country.[1]
A United Nations report issued in July related that some returnees face "serious human rights violations," including "torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security." The Taliban, which has ruled the country since seizing power in August 2021, has denied the allegations.[5]
Crash
[edit]The crash occurred approximately at 8:30 p.m. AFT, when an overloaded passenger bus[7] crashed with a motorbike and collided head-on[8] with a Mazda truck that was possibly carrying fuel barrels.[5] The bus veered off the road and caused an extensive fire. An eyewitness said bystanders tried to put out the fire by putting soil on the engine before firefighters arrived.[9] At least 77 people died initially, while two others later succumbed to their injuries, bringing the death toll to 79, with several bodies burned beyond recognition.[5] Haji Mohammad Janan Moqadas, the chief physician at the al-Farooq Army Corps hospital, said the only way to identify the bodies was through the list of passengers provided by the Department of Migrants.[9] Another witness saw three people escape the bus with their clothes burnt.[10][3] Most who died were on the bus, but two others in the truck were also killed, as well as another two who were on the motorbike.[1]
Local police stated that the accident was due to the bus's "high speed and negligence" and that all the passengers embarked from Islam Qala, a town near the Afghanistan–Iran border.[1]
Aftermath
[edit]Firefighters and clean-up teams worked to extinguish the flames and remove the charred wreckage of the vehicles early morning the day following the accident.[5][10]
The Taliban-controlled government of Afghanistan ordered an investigation.[10] Deputy Minister of Public and Strategic Relations and head of Herat's Information and Culture Department Ahmadullah Muttaqi said in a post on X that authorities are committed to a "thorough inquiry" into the crash and planned to transfer the bodies of the victims, residents of Kabul, Kapisa, Baghlan, Kunduz, Parwan, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni and Bamyan provinces, to Kabul's central hospital for identification and handover to their families.[5][7] On 20 August, the Taliban said it had arrested the head of the transportation business involved in the collision.[6]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "At least 71 die in bus crash involving Afghans deported from Iran". Al Jazeera English. 19 August 2025. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
- ^ a b "Bus crash in Afghanistan kills more than 70 Afghans returning from Iran". Associated Press. 20 August 2025. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
- ^ a b "Afghanistan bus crash death toll rises to 79, including 19 children". Al Jazeera English. 20 August 2025. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
- ^ "Herat Road Crash Kills 79, Including 19 Children". Bakhtar News Agency. 20 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f Noack, Rick; Khan, Haq Nawaz (20 August 2025). "At least 79 dead after bus crashes carrying Afghans deported from Iran". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
- ^ a b Mukhtar, Ahmad (20 August 2025). "Fiery bus crash kills dozens of migrants just back in Afghanistan after Iran deported them, officials say". CBC News. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
- ^ a b Bariz, Benyamin (20 August 2025). "Herat accident: Victims' bodies charred beyond recognition". Pajhwok Afghan News. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
- ^ Yusufzai, Mushtaq; Jett, Jennifer (20 August 2025). "Bus crash kills more than 70 Afghans deported from Iran, including 17 children". NBC News. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
- ^ a b "VIDEO: 78 people died after a bus carrying Afghan migrants collided with two other vehicles in western Afghanistan". Agence France-Presse. 20 August 2025. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
- ^ a b c "Afghanistan bus crash death toll rises to 78". France 24. Agence France-Presse. 20 August 2025. Retrieved 20 August 2025.