RABAT, Morocco — At least 24 people died Sunday in a bus crash in central Morocco, in one of the deadliest such accidents in recent years in the country, which has a poor road safety record.
The accident occurred in Azilal Province when a minibus overturned at a curve en route to the weekly market in the small town of Demnate, about 70 miles southeast of Marrakesh, according to the local authorities, as cited by MAP, Morocco’s official news agency.
Rescue teams were being mobilized to the area, including from Morocco’s Royal Gendarmerie and Civil Protection, according to The Associated Press.
Officials have opened an investigation into the cause of the accident, which followed a string of other deadly crashes. Last August, a bus crash left 23 people dead east of Casablanca.
In 2015, the collision of a semitrailer truck and a bus carrying a delegation of young athletes in southern Morocco killed 33 people.
In 2012, at least 42 were killed and 24 others injured after a bus plunged into a ravine in the Atlas Mountains, in what was then considered the worst such accident recorded in the kingdom, according to local reports.
And in November 2010, 24 people drowned when a bus carrying workmen tumbled into a river near the capital, Rabat.