Algeria - (AFP) - Nine people were killed and six others injured in a collision between a truck and a bus on Saturday night in the province of Illizi, southeastern Algeria, according to what the Algerian Civil Protection Directorate announced on Sunday.

According to a first statement by the directorate, its units "interfered last night (Saturday) at 10:15 a.m., following a traffic accident involving a collision between a bus transporting workers and a truck transporting fuel on National Road No. 3 in the state of Illizi, which left eight dead and seven injured."

In a second statement on its Facebook page, it announced that the death toll had risen to nine, after the death of one of the injured, in the accident that occurred in Bordj Omar Idris, 1,200 km southeast of Algiers.

According to the annual report of the National Delegation for Road Safety, a government body, Algeria witnessed 22,000 traffic accidents last year, killing 3,061 people and injuring 29,763 others.

According to the delegation in charge of collecting data related to traffic accidents, the "human factor", especially reckless driving by young drivers, is the primary cause of accidents, but also some road sections classified as "black spots", especially on the east-west highway that extends over more than of 1,200 km, and the national road that connects the capital in the far north with Tamanrasset in the south, with a length of 2,000 km.