International Desk:

Nineteen people have been killed in a fiery collision between a double-decker bus and a lorry in Mexico.

The vehicles crashed before dawn in La Cruz, on the highway between Mazatlan and Culiacan in the northwest of the country on Tuesday.

At least 22 people were also injured and Sara Quinonez, the attorney general of Sinaloa state, said it would take time to identify the remains of the dead.

Officials were seen removing remains from the charred wreckage of the bus, which had been traveling from the city of Guadalajara in the western state of Jalisco to Los Mochis in Sinaloa.

The truck and the bus – carrying nearly 50 people – collided head-on before catching fire, Roy Navarrete, director of civil protection in Sinaloa, said at a press conference.

Deadly road accidents are common in Mexico, often due to high speeds, poor vehicle conditions or driver fatigue.

Crashes involving freight trucks have also increased on the country’s highways.

In one of the worst accidents in recent years, at least 29 people were killed in July 2023 when a passenger bus careened off a mountain road and plummeted into a ravine in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Road crashes are a leading cause of death among migrants making the dangerous journey overland to the United States.