Seven Bangladeshis, including women and children, were killed in a road accident in Saudi Arabia on Saturday (Nov 7) while returning from Medina to Jeddah, Bangladesh’s Consul General in Jeddah has confirmed to the media.

Local sources said the dead belonged to several families. Early reports indicate a truck hit a bus carrying the Bangladeshis from behind on Saturday morning. All seven died at the scene, and the injured were admitted to hospital.

Preliminary information suggests all the victims were family members of employees of Al Abir Cold Stores Trading Company. According to the firm’s marketing manager, Nuruzzaman, the dead include storekeeper Ziaur Rahman and his two sons and a daughter, as well as the wife of forklift driver Elias, and Alamshah, a storekeeper working in Makkah, and his one-month-old daughter. Their home district is Chakaria upazila in Cox’s Bazar.

The exact time, location and cause of the crash, and the victims’ home villages, were not immediately known.