At least eight people were killed and 18 others injured when a passenger bus veered off the road and fell into a ditch in Bangladesh's central Faridpur district on Saturday, a police official said.

Axar.az reports citing Xinhua.

FM Nasim, officer in charge of Faridpur's Kotwali Police station, told local journalists that the fatal road accident took place on a highway connecting the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and southern Khulna divisional town, about 180 km southwest of the capital city.

While giving side to a motor cycle, he said, the bus skidded off a bridge and turned turtle before falling into ditch at around 2:00 p.m. local time.

"The passenger bus fell into a roadside ditch, leaving five passengers of it and the bike rider dead on the spot and some 20 were injured," he said.

All the injured were taken to a hospital in Faridpur where two more died, said the officer.

Bangladesh has high fatality rates for road accidents mainly due to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules and lack of monitoring from the traffic department.