Dozens of Indian pilgrims feared dead in Saudi crash

Dozens of Indian pilgrims are feared dead after a bus collided with a diesel tanker near the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Indian officials said.

Gaurav Uppal, a senior Telangana state official, told The Associated Press that the bus, carrying 46 people, was traveling from Mecca to Medina when the accident occurred on a highway.

“Around 45 people from Telangana are feared dead in the accident, while one person is injured,” said Uppal, who is based out of New Delhi and is involved with coordinating rescue efforts with Indian authorities in Saudi.

Relatives of the victims gathered outside the Fly Zone travel agency office in Hyderabad seeking information about their family members.

Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and Telangana's highest elected official, Revanth Reddy, expressed condolences to the bereaved families.

In a post on X, Jaishankar said the Indian Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate General in Jeddah were providing assistance to the families of the victims.

Mohammed Tahseen said seven members of his family were on board the bus, all of whom died except one. He said the injured person "called us after the accident to inform us of the tragedy."

Viswanath Channappa Sajjanar, police chief of Telangana's capital, Hyderabad, said preliminary reports indicated that at least 18 of the deceased were from Hyderabad. He said most of the victims were from two families, and the injured passenger was named Mohammed Shoaib.

“I spoke to the Consul General of India and got the details,” Sajjanar told a press conference. “There were 46 people in the bus and one passenger survived with injuries.”

Sajjanar said the police are in touch with the travel agency through which the pilgrims went to Saudi Arabia.