Fuel tanker blast in western Iran kills at least 10

At least 10 individuals were killed in a fuel tanker blast in western Iran, Iranian national broadcast media (IRIB) noted.

Key points

• After a fuel tanker slammed into a bus that had ceased to pick up passengers near Sanandaj, at least 13 individuals were killed in 2018.
• The tanker explosion on Saturday was triggered by a road crash on the Hamedan-Sanandaj highway.
• As the country suffers from poor roads and lax traffic enforcement, UNICEF remarked Iran's rate of traffic crashes is 20 times the world's average.
• At least six other individuals were injured in the incident, the governor additionally noted, adding that casualty figures were based on initial reports.
• According to local authorities, the resulting fire was immediately brought under control.

Meanwhile, the tanker explosion on Saturday was triggered by a road crash on the Hamedan-Sanandaj highway.

As noted by the Reuters news agency, the accident was caused by a technical fault in the braking system of the vehicle carrying the tanker, remarked the governor of Sanandaj, the capital of Iran's Kurdistan province.

According to local authorities, the resulting fire was immediately brought under control. They did not provide further details on the identities of those killed.

For context, the latest deadly accident adds to a long history of deadly tanker and bus collisions in Iran, where poor road conditions, ageing vehicle fleets and heavy freight traffic have created such accidents a recurring hazard.

According to a May 2017 report by the Tehran-based newspaper Financial Tribune, more than 20, 000 individuals are killed and 800, 000 are injured annually in road accidents in Iran.

For now, fuel tanker blast in western Iran kills at least 10 remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.