At least nine Indian workers were among 13 people killed when the bus they were travelling in rammed into a parked truck on the busy Emirates road here.
The bus hit the parked truck, flipped on its left side and skidded for five meters, killing 13 people on the spot including Indians and Bangladeshis yesterday, police said.
The 30-seater minibus was carrying 27 workers to their worksite in Jebel Ali when it hit the rear of the truck on Emirates Road, a busy route that connects the capital Abu Dhabi to the north of the UAE.
All the nine Indians killed were from Bihar, an official from the Indian Consulate here told PTI.
Some injured Indian and Bangladeshi workers were taken to Rashid and Al Baraha Hospitals for treatment.
Officials from the consulates of India and Bangladesh said they expect to repatriate the bodies once post-mortem examinations have been completed.
Those killed in the accident worked as technicians, welders and fabricators.
The drivers of a bus and the truck involved in the accident have both been detained, Gulf News reported.
Technical reports will clarify the liability of the two Pakistani drivers involved the highway horror, the paper quoted a senior police official as saying.
Both the drivers have been placed under provisional detention for causing 13 deaths and 15 injuries, Salah Bu Farousha, Senior Chief Prosecutor and Head of Dubai Traffic Public Prosecution, said.
The Indian owner of the labour supply group, which is a consortium of five companies, is also being questioned.
The nine Indians killed in the mishap have been identified as: Devendra Kumar Yadav, Kamlesh Kumar Singh, Shatrughan Kumar Singh, Kokil Choudhary; Krishan Shah, Dharmendra Singh, Vijay Gupta, Siraj Ansari, and Sanjay Ramchand.
The Indian consulate said it was in talks with the company for compensation for the relatives of the workers who died.
The mangled wreckage of the bus had to be cut open to free the victims, said Lt Col Ahmed Atiq Burqibah, deputy director of rescue at Dubai Police.
"It's definitely the biggest accident so far this year," he was quoted as saying in local media. "So many people died and so many others were injured. It was a big disaster."
Maj-Gen Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Commander-in-Chief, Dubai Police, were among first to rush to the accident site.
Expatriates, many of them Asian, make up the great majority of Dubai's 2.2 million population.
