Afghanistan fuel tanker crash kills at least 73

Women and children among the dead

At least 73 injured when two buses collided with a fuel tanker (EPA)

At least 73 people are feared dead after two buses and a fuel tanker collided on a major highway in Afghanistan.

Dozens more people were wounded in the accident, which set all three vehicles ablaze. Many of the dead, including women and children, were burned beyond recognition.

"The death toll has soared to 73, most of them severely burned," Afghan ministry spokesman Ismail Kawoosi told the AFP news agency. Warning that the toll was expected to rise still further, he added: "Many of the wounded have been rushed to hospitals in (southern) Kandahar city and Ghazni."

One of the buses was also reported to have overturned.

The collision happened in the Muqur district of Ghazni on the main highway linking the capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar.

Mohammadullah Ahmadi, director of the provincial traffic department, said the crash was caused by reckless driving.

Road accidents are common in Afghanistan, where roads are often in poor condition and traffic laws are rarely enforced.

The latest incident bears striking resemblances to a collision between a bus and a fuel tanker, which occurred in September 2012, also in Ghazni province and also on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. It killed at least 50 people and involved both vehicles being engulfed in flames.

After that incident – in Ghazni’s Abband district – police ruled out roadside mines, which are another hazard on Afghan roads, and said both vehicles were travelling at very high speed.

A witness to the 2012 accident told the BBC “Drivers on this road often kill people.”