DUBAI - A truck smuggling fuel smashed into a car carrying illegal refugees on Friday in southeastern Iran, killing 15 Afghan citizens and three Iranians, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Local official Mohammad Sadeq Dadollahpour said the Afghans had been crammed into the car and were killed when the two vehicles caught fire after the crash. The Iranians had been travelling in the truck, Fars reported.
Fars said the accident happened near the town of Rigan in the southeastern province of Kerman.
Road traffic accidents kill nearly 28,000 people and injure or disable 300,000 people a year in Iran , a country of 75 million people, according to statistics from Unicef , the U.N. children's fund.
In October, a passenger bus in southwestern Iran overturned, killing 26 female high school students on board. - Reuters