A road accident involving a passenger bus and a fuel tanker killed 16 people and injured four others on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island on Wednesday (May 6, 2026) a disaster agency official told AFP.

“Fourteen passengers of the bus and two people from the oil tanker died” in the crash in North Musi Rawas Regency, official Hasbi Hasidqi said by telephone as local TV broadcast images of wreckage in flames.

Four people were hospitalised, three of them with serious burns, according to another emergency official.

Initial information suggested one of the bus tyres had burst, Mr. Hasidqi said.

The driver “lost control and crashed”, causing “a massive fire” that engulfed both vehicles, he added. The tanker was transporting diesel.

Transport accidents are not uncommon in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation where buses, trains and even planes are often old and poorly maintained.

Last month, a long-distance train slammed into the last, women-only carriage of a stationary commuter train near the Bekasi Timur station in West Java, killing 16 women and injuring at least 90 people.

Days later, a train hit a car in Central Java, killing four people including two children.