DHAKA (XINHUA) - At least eight people were killed and 18 others injured when a passenger bus veered off the road and fell into a ditch in Bangladesh's central Faridpur district on Saturday (Aug 24), a police official said.

Mr F.M. Nasim, the officer in charge of Faridpur's Kotwali Police station, told local journalists that the fatal road accident took place on a highway connecting the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and southern Khulna divisional town, about 180km south-west of the capital city.

While giving way to a motorcycle, the bus skidded off a bridge and turned turtle before falling into ditch at around 2pm local time.

"The passenger bus fell into a roadside ditch, leaving five (bus) passengers and the bike rider dead on the spot, and some 20 were injured," said Mr Nasim.

All the injured were taken to a hospital in Faridpur where two more died, said the officer.

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