A rescuer searches for victims' bodies in Sindh province, early Sunday morning.A passenger bus with some 50 people collided with an oil tanker near Hyderabad, a main city in Sindh province, early Sunday morning. [Xinhua/AFP Photo]

At least 32 people were killed and several injured in a road accident in southern Pakistan, officials and rescue teams said Sunday.

A passenger bus with some 50 people collided with an oil tanker near Hyderabad, a main city in Sindh province, early Sunday morning, regional police officer Muhammad Farooq said at the accident site.

Rescue police confirmed death of 32 people while nine others were injured.

Farooq said both vehicles caught fire and the passengers died of burn injuries. He said that the fire fighters were also arrived late at the crash site and passengers on the front seats could not go out of the bus due to severe blaze.

The police officer said that several passengers at the back seats succeeded to flee from the bus, who were later taken to a nearby hospital.

The injured said the coach driver was drowsy and was in high speed. They said some passengers asked the driver to be alert but he ignored the advice. They said the driver could not control the bus and hit the tanker, parked along the road on the Super Highway.

The passenger bus was heading to Sukkur in interior Sindh from Karachi, the provincial capital.

TV footage showed the bus totally gutted. Locals and private rescue teams pulled the burnt bodies and several injured out of the bus.

The police officer said that several women and children were among the victims, adding that majority of the passenger were youth. He said that the oil tanker was carrying around 40 thousand liter oil. He said parts of the bus were cut to extract the burnt bodies.

Traffic rules violation and lack of adequate road safety standards in Pakistan are the main reasons to be blamed for traffic accidents in Pakistan.

It is also recorded that about 87 percent accidents in Pakistan are due to negligence of drivers indulged in over-speeding, overloading and wrong overtaking.