Karachi, Jan 11 (IANS): At least 30 people were killed and scores injured in a deadly road accident in Pakistan, involving a bus and an oil tanker, Saturday.

The bus was travelling from Karachi to Shikarpur on the Super Highway Link Road when the tanker crashed into it head on, the Dawn online reported.

Police sources said that the bus was carrying 55 passengers, including women and children.

The sources added that both the vehicles caught fire upon colliding, as passengers sitting on top of the bus jumped off to save themselves.

According to the commissioner of Karachi, Shoaib Siddiqui, the crash was a result of negligence on the part of the tanker's driver. He said that the flames were difficult to control owing to the presence of petrol.

A survivor said that the passenger bus was overcrowded, which was a common practice in the absence of safety regulations.

Pakistan has an appalling record of fatal traffic accidents as a result of poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving. Crashes killing dozens of people are not uncommon.

Close to 9,000 road accidents have been reported every year since 2011, which have killed over 4,500 people on an average, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

In November last year, 58 people died in a bus accident in Karachi, which happened due to poor condition of the roads.

In April, a bus smashed into a tractor-trailer in a high-speed collision in Sindh, killing 42 people, while in March, a horrific crash between two buses and a petrol tanker left 35 dead, with many burnt alive when the fuel ignited.