KABUL, July 3 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed, eight injured, and 10 others remain missing after a truck overloaded with returning Afghan refugees plunged into a river in eastern Afghanistan's Laghman province on Thursday evening, the provincial police office said in a statement on Friday.
The incident occurred when the truck, carrying 22 passengers, collided with an oncoming high-speed vehicle in the Khairokhail area along the key highway linking the capital Kabul to eastern provinces, according to the statement. Authorities blamed reckless driving for the crash.
Local residents and rescue teams rushed to the site and were continuing search operations to locate the missing, it added.
The tragedy comes just months after a similar deadly accident on the same highway in Laghman, when a truck carrying recently returned refugees veered off the road and overturned in early May, killing 18 people and injuring 30 others.
Road accidents remain one of the leading causes of death across Afghanistan, driven by reckless driving, severely overcrowded vehicles, poorly maintained roads, and inadequate traffic infrastructure in the war-torn country. ■