At least 17 Pakistani pilgrims die in bus crash while travelling for Eid celebrations

Over a dozen people sustained severe injuries, officials say

Relatives of religious pilgrims, who died in a truck accident, mourn in Karachi (AFP/Getty)

A bus carrying dozens of people to a pilgrimage on Eid fell into a deep ditch in Pakistan, killing at least 17 people.

The accident took place in the western Balochistan province on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the provincial government, Shahid Rind, said.

The pilgrims were travelling to a holy site on the first day of the Eid ul-Fitr celebrations when Muslims break their Ramadan fast.

At least 17 people were confirmed dead and 16 more people were injured, officials told local media. Thirty-three people were on the bus.

Two children were among the injured.

The driver lost control of the bus in Las Bela district at a bend and the vehicle fell into a ravine, some 25km from the Muslim Sufi shrine Shah Noorani the pilgrims were heading to.

The remote shrine is located in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan, the third largest city of the province.

The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital in nearby Sindh province and undergoing treatment but at least 15 people were in serious condition, officials said. Five people had severe head inuries.

People wait to collect the body of their relative who were died in a bus crash, at a morgue in Karachi, Pakistan (AP)

The accident occurred near the Sindh-Balochistan border, just 100km from Karachi – one of Pakistan’s bustling metropolitans.

All the passengers belonged to Thatta town in the Sindh province and many were from the same family, officials said on Thursdsy after the bodies were identified in the hospital.

“They were all very poor people,” Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah said, describing them as labourers who had been travelling by truck.

Eid is usually the busiest time in Pakistan when millions of people travel for pilgrimage or leisure after the month-long Ramadan fast.