Algeria: 11 dead and 28 injured in a road accident between Ouargla and Touggourt

Eleven people died and 28 others were badly injured in a traffic accident occurred at 5:45 am Sunday on the National Road (RN-56), between the towns of Ouargla and Touggourt in southern Algeria, civil protection sources announced.

A violent head-on collision between a passenger bus ensuring the Algiers-Ouargla shuttle service and a semi-trailer truck, killed on the spot 8 people, including three women among the passengers of the bus and two others on the truck and caused injuries to varying degrees, to 28 other people, the same sources added.

The victims’ bodies have been laid at the mortuary of the Boudiaf hospital in the town of Ouargla, and the wounded were rushed to the emergency care unit of the same health facility.

Six firefighters’ trucks and elements of a rapid task unit entrusted with stemming the scourge of road accidents and 16 ambulances from the Emergency Preparedness health center in the region were swiftly dispatched to the scene of the ill-fated accident to ensure the speedy evacuation of the victims, a local civil protection spokesman further indicated.

An in-depth investigation was opened by the services of the National Police and Gendarmerie to determine the exact circumstances surrounding this tragedy.