KARACHI (AFP) - At least 42 people were killed and 17 wounded in southern Pakistan on Sunday when a bus travelling to Karachi collided with a tractor pulling a trolley, police said.

The dead and injured included women and children.

The accident happened in the town of Sukkur, 425 kilometres (266 miles) north of Karachi in the southern province of Sindh.

Fida Hussain Shah, a senior police officer in Sukkur who gave the casualty figure, said the bus driver was killed on the spot while the driver of the tractor-trolley was wounded.

Police said the cause of the accident was yet not clear. Tractor-trolleys are a common form of transportation in rural areas.

Sharjeel Kharal, another senior police official, confirmed the incident and told AFP the injured have been taken to a nearby government-run hospital.