A bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims overturned in central Iran, killing 28 passengers and injuring another 23 people, state media reported on Wednesday.
The accident took place late on Tuesday in the central Iranian province of Yazd and was caused by a technical defect in the bus braking system, according to preliminary investigations made by the Iranian traffic police.
"Unfortunately, 11 women and 17 men lost their lives in this accident. Seven of the injured people are in critical condition and six injured people have now left the hospital," the crisis management director general of Yazd province told state TV.
Pakistan's consular services in Iran have been invited to Yazd province to follow up on the accident, the official added.
Millions of Shia Muslims are currently partaking in the Arbaeen pilgrimage in Iraq's Karbala Governorate.
The event marks the 40th mourning following the martyrdom of Imam Hussein bin Ali, a central figure in Shi'ite Islam and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
The US military said on Monday it destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones as Tehran sought to thwart a new US naval effort to open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
President Vladimir Putin has declared on Monday a two-day ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine on May 8-9 to mark Russia’s World War Two victory, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy countered with his own proposed pause in fighting starting earlier, on the night of May 5‑6.
A blast at a fireworks factory in China's Hunan province has killed 21 people and injured 61, prompting President Xi Jinping to call for a thorough investigation, state media reported on Tuesday.
A small airplane with five occupants crashed into a building on Monday in the city of Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil, killing three people, local officials and firefighters said.
Two people were killed and three others were seriously injured on Monday when a car drove into a central pedestrian zone of the eastern German city of Leipzig, Mayor Burkhard Jung said, the latest in a spate of such incidents in recent years in Germany.