At least 26 people were killed and more than 20 wounded in a bus crash on Saturday in the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan, Russian news agencies reported from the Uzbek capital.
The incident occurred in the south-western Kashkadarya region of the isolated ex-Soviet state when a bus carrying 50 passengers collided with a stationary construction vehicle, the Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies reported. "The bus collided at high speed with an excavator that was sitting on the roadside. As a result of the accident 26 people were killed," an interior ministry source told the agencies.
"More than 20 received injuries of varying degrees of severity."
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but the region's decaying network of Soviet-built roads are the site of frequent accidents.
Uzbek officials in Tashkent declined to comment when contacted by AFP.