Syria bus crash kills at least 35, injures 30
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Military helicopters were deployed to airlift casualties from the scene, after a civilian bus and one carrying internal security forces personnel collided in Syria on July 25.
PHOTO: AFP
- A collision between two passenger buses in Syria's central-eastern desert killed at least 35 people and injured 30 on July 25, involving a bus carrying internal security forces and a civilian bus.
- The accident is described as one of the deadliest in recent years, highlighting Syria's neglected and damaged road infrastructure, which requires urgent repair and maintenance.
- Authorities have prioritised road maintenance in the eastern region, as similar deadly accidents have occurred recently due to poor road conditions worsened by years of conflict and neglect.
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DAMASCUS - A crash between two passenger buses in a central-eastern desert region of Syria on July 25 killed at least 35 people, state media said.
News agency SANA, quoting a health ministry official, also said 30 others were injured in the “collision between two passenger buses on the Damascus-Deir Ezzor road”.
The interior ministry said the crash was between “a bus carrying a number of internal security forces personnel and a civilian bus”, without specifying how many of the casualties were from its forces.
The crash happened on the Damascus-Deir Ezzor road.
PHOTO: AFP
State media broadcast footage of the crash, including images of a bus on fire and with debris strewn along the highway, and reported that military helicopters had been deployed to airlift casualties from the scene.
Emergency and disaster management minister Raed Al Saleh described the crash as “one of the deadliest road accidents in Syria in recent years in terms of the number of victims”.
He said it “places a shared national responsibility on all of us to work to prevent such painful incidents from recurring”, according to SANA.
“It also underscores the urgent need to address the accumulated challenges facing the country’s road infrastructure, which is burdened by years of neglect and the damage inflicted on various public service sectors.”
A screengrab from SANA news agency footage shows a military helicopter taking part in the evacuation of injured and dead passengers from Palmyra Airport to the Homs Military Hospital after the crash.
PHOTO: AFP
Earlier this month, five people were killed and dozens of others injured, most of them Lebanese, when a bus carrying pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia overturned on a highway in southern Syria‘s Daraa province.
After years of civil war and neglect, Syria‘s infrastructure is crumbling and many of its roads are in need of repairs.
State television quoted the director of road transport in Damascus, Moaz Najjar, as saying that authorities “have directed that road maintenance in the eastern region be treated as a priority”.
He added that “most roads are in a state of disrepair and have not undergone maintenance for the past 15 years”.
In 2025, at least 12 people were killed and several others injured when a bus collided with an oil tanker in northeastern Syria.
But the July 25 accident was one of the worst in recent years.
In 2020, at least 32 died when a fuel tanker crashed into two buses on a road between Damascus and Homs province. AFP
