At least 25 people have died and 44 others were injured after an Algeria bus crash near the capital, Algiers, when a passenger bus overturned and plunged into a ravine in northern Algeria on Friday morning, in what officials are calling one of the deadliest road disasters the country has recorded in recent years.
The Algeria bus crash happened around 9.41am local time near Berrahmoun El Karma, on a bypass road on the outskirts of Boumerdès, a coastal province roughly 55 kilometres east of the capital, Algiers, according to the country’s Civil Protection department. The bus was travelling from Sétif to Algiers when it veered off the road, overturned and rolled down a steep embankment into the ravine.
Algeria’s Civil Protection agency, which coordinated the emergency response to the Algeria bus crash, said its teams reached the scene shortly after the crash to pull victims from the wreckage and rush the wounded to nearby hospitals. Rescue workers were still combing the site hours later, and officials have warned that the toll from the Algeria bus crash could still rise as more casualties are confirmed.
Footage circulating on Algerian broadcast outlets showed the coach lying crumpled at the bottom of the ravine, with ambulances making repeated trips along the narrow bypass to ferry the injured for treatment. The exact cause of the crash has not yet been established, and an investigation has been opened, Civil Protection officials said.
Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb travelled to the scene of the Algeria bus crash on Friday and later visited the University Hospital of Boumerdès, where a number of the injured were receiving treatment, according to Algerian broadcaster Ennahar TV. He spoke with emergency workers at the site, where the wrecked bus remained visible in the ravine below the road.
Interior Minister Saïd Sayoud also travelled to Boumerdès following the crash, joining local officials in overseeing the rescue and recovery operation, according to Algerian state media. Provincial authorities in Boumerdès said hospitals across the wilaya had been placed on alert to receive casualties and that additional medical staff had been mobilised.
Friday’s disaster is the latest in a string of fatal bus accidents to hit Algeria in recent years. In August last year, 18 people were killed when a bus plunged into a ravine near Algiers. In December, 14 people died after a bus overturned in the southern region of Béchar. Algerian road safety authorities have repeatedly identified speeding and other human factors as the leading causes of crashes on the country’s roads, which recorded nearly 23,000 accidents and more than 3,400 deaths in 2022 alone.
The scale of Friday’s Algeria bus crash has already drawn comparisons to some of the country’s worst road disasters, and it is likely to renew scrutiny of road safety enforcement and the condition of intercity coach routes such as the Sétif to Algiers corridor. No official government statement on the Algeria bus crash had been issued by Friday evening beyond the figures released by Civil Protection. For now, rescue teams in Boumerdès remain focused on the injured, as families across the region wait for confirmation on relatives who were travelling on the bus.
