At least 34 people were killed and 12 others were wounded Wednesday in an accident in Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, the Algerian civil defense agency said, revealing that the accident involved a passenger bus.

The head-on collision between the bus and a commercial vehicle caused a fire, the agency said, noting that rescue operations were underway.

The accident is one of the deadlines to take place in the region in years, with local media reporting that charred bodies were recovered from the bus.

🔴 34 حالة وفاة في حادث مرور بولاية تمنراست.
🚨حادث اصطدام بين سيارة نفعية و حافلة لنقل المسافرين متبوع بحريق على الساعة 04 و 15 دقيقة، بالطريق الوطني رقم 01 منطقة اوتول 20 كلم من تمنراست.
📌ارتفع عدد الضحايا الى 34 وفاة "محروقين " و 12جريح
✅️العملية متواصلة ... pic.twitter.com/raGc6fTux1

— Protection Civile_dz الحماية المدنية الجزائر (@DGPC_CNI) July 19, 2023

According to the civil defense agency, the bus was carrying passengers between Tamanrasset, some 2,000 kilometers south of the capital Algiers, and Adrar, a relatively small town in the northwest.

Algeria recorded nearly 23,000 accidents in 2022, leaving 3,409 people dead and more than 30,000 injured, road safety chief Nacef Abdelhakim said.

During a similar time last year, a similar crash took place across the border, in Morocco, though the casualties were not as severe.

The crash took place east of Casablanca and left 23 people dead. 

The bus overturned on a bend of a motorway in Khouribga, a province in the northwest of the country, in the morning, local authorities said, giving an initial toll of 15 dead.

Regional health director Rochdi Kaddar later revised the death toll to 23, and media reports said another 36 people were injured in the crash.

Similarly to Algeria, these sorts of accidents lead to an average of 3,500 deaths in Morocco and 12,000 injuries, data provided by the National Road Safety Agency said, with an average of 10 deaths per day.