Four killed after bus carrying holidaymakers crashes in Oman

Four people died and 42 were injured when a bus carrying 53 passengers to a holiday resort in Oman veered off the road into the side of a mountain on Friday.

State broadcaster Oman TV showed footage on Saturday morning of medical personnel moving the injured from the overturned bus and retrieving bodies.

Witnesses said the bus veered off the road while negotiating a turn at high speed.

“It was going round the bend on top of a small hill, veered left to right and then hit the side of a mountain and overturned,” Saif Al Rushaidi, who was driving behind the bus, told The National.

The accident happened in the Wadi Kabeer area of the capital, Muscat.

Nathan Jeevanji, an Indian living in Oman, was travelling on the bus. Many people were screaming after the accident, he told The National.

“I was texting messages on my mobile phone and suddenly the bus went left to right and we found ourselves feet up," said Mr Jeevanji.

"There were screams everywhere and some passengers were just quiet, whom I now presume are the ones who died or were unconscious.”

Mr Jeevanji said the bus was heading to Qantab, a hilly resort in south-west Muscat where he and his friends were going to camp overnight on the beach to take advantage of the long weekend.

Oman declared Sunday a holiday for Isra Wal Miraj, the day Muslims commemorate the journey of Prophet Mohammed took in one night from Makkah to the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and through the seven stages of heaven.