At least 16 people, mostly factory workers and labourers, were killed on Saturday when a cement-laden truck they were travelling on overturned and fell into a ditch after the driver lost control near the northwestern Bangladeshi city of Rangpur.
After the truck fell in the ditch, its passengers were buried under heavy cement bags that the vehicle was stacked with.
Media reports said the passengers were mostly poor garment factory workers or daily wage labourers, who were taking a ride from suburban Gazipur to return to their families in northwestern Lalmonirhat district for Eid.
“They were travelling on a cement-laden truck...Eleven of them died instantly and five succumbed to their wounds on the way to or at two hospitals,” a police officer said.
Highway police camp in-charge Hafizur Rahman said that five people injured in the accident were being treated at a Rangpur hospital and had suffered critical wounds.