A total of 50 people were killed and 76 injured in two highway accidents in southeastern Afghanistan, a government spokesman said Thursday.

One was a collision between a bus and an oil tanker on the Kabul-Kandahar highway late Wednesday, said Hafiz Omar, spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province.

The second, also late on Wednesday and in the same province, was in another area of ​​the same highway, which connects the Afghan capital to the south.

Hamidullah Nisar, provincial head of the Taliban-run Department of Information and Culture, told the Reuters news agency that the second accident involved a cargo truck, adding that some of those injured in both collisions were in critical condition.

Omar said many of the injured were transferred to hospitals in Ghazni, and patients in more serious condition were transferred to Kabul. Among the victims were women and children, he said.

The authorities were in the process of handing over the bodies to the families, Omar said.

Abdullah Khan, a survivor of the accident, who is being treated at Ghazni Hospital, said he did not know how many people were killed or injured.

“I got off the bus myself and heard the sound of wailing. There was blood everywhere. Some people had head injuries and others had leg injuries.”

Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, mainly due to poor road conditions and driver inattention.