Fourteen people were killed and 34 others injured after a passenger bus overturned in the town of Tabelbala in southern Algeria, according to a civil defense statement.

The accident occurred on the main highway linking Béchar and Tindouf after the bus veered off the road and flipped onto its roof.

Images from the scene showed the bus completely crushed on the roadside in one of the worst traffic accidents reported in the region this year.

It is the deadliest accident since last August, when another bus overturned near the capital, killing 18 people.