8 die in head-on collision in Bangladesh

At least eight people were killed after two passenger buses collided on a highway in Bangladesh on Friday, the police said.

The accident took place on the Thakurgaon-Dhaka Highway around 8.30 a.m., a police official was cited as saying by bdnews.24.com. More than 20 people were injured in the mishap.

The accident left five people dead on the spot, said Ashikur Rahman, officer-in-charge of a Thakurgaon police station.

The injured were rushed to a Thakurgaon hospital where two more died later, he said, adding that another injured died while being shifted to another hospital.

The cause of the accident was under investigation, said the officer.

"Each family will receive 10,000 takas to complete the burial after the bodies are identified," said Deputy Commissioner KM Kamruzzaman Selim, after visiting the scene.

Bangladesh has high fatality rates for road accidents mainly due to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules by inept drivers and lack of monitoring of the traffic department.