Dozens of athletes killed in Morocco road collision

Reports say long-distance runner Hassan Issengar and several young athletes were among the 31 people killed.

fiery head-on collision between a semi-trailer truck and a bus carrying a delegation of young athletes in southern Morocco has killed at least 31 people and injured nine, according to the state news agency and local media reports.

The news agency quoted authorities as saying that the crash took place just before sunrise on Friday in the district of Chbika, near the southern desert city of Tan-Tan.
Reports said that celebrated 10-km runner Hassan Issengar, 31, was among the dead.

"We have many completely carbonised bodies. Authorities have been in contact with the bus company to identify the victims" Benmane Fadli, regional director of the transportation ministry, told the Reuters news agency.
The bus was heading from the capital Rabat to Laayoune in Western Sahara.
A video posted by the French-language economic daily L'Economiste showed the flaming wreckage of the tour bus, which caught fire after hitting what the newspaper identified as a tanker truck carrying hydrocarbons.
People wandered around the flaming frame of the bus — the truck has been flattened and apparently completely destroyed — in the middle of of the desert landscape.
According to details provided by the Le360.ma news site, the bus was carrying young athletes and officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports that were involved in a national sports competition.
The Les Ecos newspaper reported on its website that the athletes were from the northern town of Bouznika and from Laayoune, a city further to the south in the annexed Western Sahara territory.
According to the US State Department website, traffic accidents are a "significant hazard" in Morocco.
Although there are modern highways between the main cities, the rest of the country is served by two lane roads, often in poor condition and reckless driving habits, such as overtaking on curves, are quite common, AP news agency reported.
According to the World Health Organization, some 5,217 people died in 2010 from road accidents.
New stricter laws have been put in place, however, to make up for historically light enforcement of traffic rules.