DAMASCUS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a collision involving two passenger buses on the Damascus-Deir al-Zour highway in central Syria on Saturday has risen to 35, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a health official.
Najib al-Naasan, director of the Referral, Ambulance and Emergency Directorate at Syria's health authorities, said 30 other people were injured from the collision.
The accident occurred between the areas of al-Sukhna and Palmyra in the eastern countryside of Homs province. The cause of the collision was not immediately known.
Syria's defense authorities have dispatched several helicopters to assist in the medical evacuation of the injured and victims to Homs Military Hospital, according to a SANA correspondent.
Authorities have not yet released further details about the circumstances surrounding the collision.
Earlier, Syria's state-run Al-Ikhbariya television put the deaths and injuries of the collision at 19 and 27, respectively.■
