21 immigrants killed in Libya truck crash

Tripoli: At least 21 illegal immigrants of different African nationalities were killed when a truck carrying them crashed in northern Libya on Wednesday.

Seventy-five people were wounded as a large transport truck carrying them overturned early morning in the city of Bani Walid, 180 km southeast of Tripoli, Xinhua news agency reported.

Mohammed Al-Mabrouk, Director of Beni Walid General Hospital, appealed to the international humanitarian and relief bodies for urgent assistance to the hospital “due to insufficient ability to provide medical services for so many patients at the moment”.

Bani Walid is a major point of movement for illegal immigrants from southern Libya to the coast in the north, where they are transported by boats through the Mediterranean to European shores.

—IANS