Bus crash kills at least 24 in northern Afghanistan

Kabul

Women and children were among those killed in the accident today on a major highway in Samangan province.
    
"The crash happened when the bus carrying more than 50 passengers was travelling from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif," said Sarajuddin Fitrat, the governor of Hazrat Sultan district where the accident occurred.
   
"Twenty four people were killed and 17 others were injured."
   
The defence ministry in Kabul gave a much higher death toll of 43.
   
The injured were rushed to hospital while police and a rescue team retrieved the bodies.

Afghanistan has some of the world's most dangerous roads and deadly accidents are common.
   
At least 18 people were killed in May when a minivan overturned in the western province of Badghis.

And in April 2013 a bus hit a wrecked fuel tanker in the southern province of Kandahar, killing 45 people.

The World Bank in November signed off a $250 million grant to upgrade roads crossing Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains, crucial trade links that are often closed in winter by snow.