13 killed in road accident in Sudan

Khartoum:At least 13 people were killed and 10 injured in a traffic accident near Al-Qitaina area in Sudan's White Nile State Monday, a media report said.

The accident took place when a tire of a passenger bus exploded, Xinhua quoted Sudanese Al-Tareeq online newspaper as saying in a report, noting that the bus was travelling from Khartoum to El-Obeid town in western Sudan.

The injured were taken to Al-Qitaina hospital, while those suffering serious injuries have been transferred to hospitals in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Last July about 27 people were killed when a mini-bus collided with a truck near the same area of Al-Qitaina, some 100 km south of Khartoum.

A report by Sudan's health ministry in 2013 said the death rate of traffic accidents constituted 43.3 percent of the total death rate in the country.

Traffic accidents have recently reoccurred in Sudan due to high speed and wrong crossing which pushed the Sudanese interior ministry last year to adopt new plans to reduce the number of accidents.