A bus carrying pilgrims to Makkah burst into flames after crashing into a bridge, killing 20 people and injuring more than two dozen, Saudi state media reported.
The accident occurred at about 4pm on Monday in Aqabat Shaar of Asir province, Al Ekhbariya TV reported.
The bus had departed Khamis Mushayt and was heading to Abha region.
It comes during the first week of Ramadan when there is surge in the arrival of Umrah pilgrims, and merely months before millions of Muslims are expected to make the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
According to reports, problems with brakes on the bus led to a collision with a barrier at the end of a bridge, which caused it to overturn and catch fire.
"According to preliminary information we have now received, the number of deaths in this accident reached 20, and the total number of injuries was approximately 29," the television channel reported.
It said the victims had "different nationalities", but did not mention them.
Footage showed what appeared to be the burnt shell of the bus.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
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