FUJAIRAH, United Arab Emirates. Fourteen people were killed and 30 others were injured late on Wednesday night when a truck lost control at the entrance to the emirate of Fujairah, overturned and caught fire, setting off a pile-up that involved 23 vehicles, the United Arab Emirates Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
Fujairah Police said the injured include nationals of Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, India, Brazil, Jordan and Egypt. Police did not say how many of the injured are Pakistani. No Pakistani has been confirmed among the dead, and by the time this story was published, Pakistan’s Embassy in Abu Dhabi, its Consulate General in Dubai and the Foreign Office in Islamabad had not commented on the crash.
The crash happened on Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Road, the main road into the emirate, shortly before midnight. Police said the driver lost control of the truck, which hit another vehicle and overturned before striking several vehicles that had stopped in slow-moving traffic. In all, 18 cars and five trucks were involved. The truck caught fire, and the flames spread to several of the other damaged vehicles.
The Interior Ministry said its casualty figures were based on preliminary information, and they could change as identification work continues. Fujairah Police said 15 of the 30 injured people had been discharged from hospital after treatment, while the remaining 15 were still receiving care, depending on the severity of their injuries.
Police confirmed that Emirati nationals are among the dead. Several other victims have not yet been identified and are being identified through DNA testing, and the authorities have not released a breakdown of the dead by nationality. India’s Consulate General in Dubai has confirmed that Indian nationals were among those killed.
Emergency and specialist teams responded to the scene and continued working there as the authorities began the legal and technical procedures that follow a major crash, the ministry said. The investigation into how the truck lost control is continuing.
The Interior Ministry offered its condolences to the families of those who died and wished the injured a speedy recovery. Both the ministry and Fujairah Police urged the public to rely only on official sources for updates and not to circulate unverified claims about the victims, the toll or their nationalities, out of respect for the families.
Fujairah, on the Gulf of Oman coast, is one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates and sits at the eastern end of the highway network that links it with Dubai and Sharjah. The Emirates are home to one of the largest Pakistani expatriate communities in the world, and Zark News will update this story when officials release the victims’ identities or the Pakistani missions comment.
