Forty-two Indian Umrah pilgrims killed in Saudi bus crash

A bus crashed near the Saudi city of Madinah early on Monday, with reports saying more than 40 people were killed in the accident.

The vehicle was carrying Umrah pilgrims from India and collided with a diesel tanker while travelling from Makkah to Madinah. Indian media reported that the bus caught fire after the crash.

Authorities in the southern Indian state of Telangana said 42 pilgrims were killed and one person survived, The Times of India reported. The dead included 20 women and 11 children, most from the city of Hyderabad.

Saudi Arabia has not yet confirmed the death toll.

India's Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, expressed his condolences to families of the victims in a message on X. "Deeply shocked at the accident involving Indian nationals in Madinah, Saudi Arabia," he said in the post. "Our embassy in Riyadh and consulate in Jeddah are giving fullest support to Indian nationals and families affected by this accident."

Earlier this month, a bus crashed and caught fire while travelling from Saudi Arabia to Yemen. The bus, en route from Jeddah to Yemen's southern port city of Aden, collided head-on with a minibus in a mountainous area of Yemen's Abyan province.