The 17 dead are the driver and passengers of the van, police officer Godofredo Tupaz told AFP. Earlier, a firefighter had spoken of 13 bodies, emphasizing that the injured had been taken to the hospital in serious condition.
Among the dead is a 6-year-old child, who breathed his last in the hospital. Another passenger is hospitalized with injuries. The driver of the truck and his two passengers survived, Tupaz said. The driver is being held by the police.
The accident occurred in the followingnoon on a main road in the municipality of Antipas, in the province of Cotabato, on the island of Mindanao, the country’s second largest.
Eyewitnesses described how the truck’s brakes appeared to have failed before the crash, disaster management official Mick Garfin told AFP. According to him, the van then burst into flames, possibly due to the collision.
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