KHANPUR: A Pakistani rescue team works on the wreckage of a deadly accident involving two buses, in Khanpur yesterday. —AP

MULTAN: Two passenger buses collided head-on in central Pakistan yesterday, killing 24 people and injuring 69, officials said. The accident, which occurred on a dangerous curve in Khanpur town in Rahim Yar Khan district, was likely caused by speeding, said police official Jamshid Shah.

Several children, college students and women were among the victims, Shah said. He said police and rescue officials were using cutters and to retrieve bodies trapped inside the two buses. Dr Tasleem Kamran at a government hospital said the injured were being treated and that several were reported to be in critical condition.

"We have declared an emergency. We desperately need blood," she said. Local TV footage showed ambulances and rescue officials rushing the injured persons to hospitals. Before the rescuers and police arrived, resident Waqar Ahmad said townspeople, who heard the sound of the crash, arrived at the scene and started pulling the victims out of the wreckage.