Ten people died and three were injured in a bus in Tajikistan when the vehicle's home-made liquefied gas tank exploded in the west of the Central Asian state, Tajik police said today.
The accident took place in the town of Gissar some 20 km (12 miles) west of the Tajik capital Dushanbe late on Saturday, police added.
Monthly wages in Tajikistan average just $20, and to avoid costly imported gasoline many private drivers mount home-made tanks with much cheaper liquefied gas on their vehicles.
Tajikistan, a mountainous state of seven million bordering China and Afghanistan, remains the poorest nation in the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States after a 1992-97 civil war that killed 100,000 people and ruined the economy.