A traffic accident on Sunday morning in southern Iran has claimed the lives of 19 people, the official IRNA news agency.

A passenger bus hit a rock and turned over on Shiraz-Kazeroon road, some 50 km from Shiraz, the provincial capital of Fars, said IRNA.

The driver and 18 passengers were killed while 25 others were injured. The injured were transferred to a hospital in Shiraz, the report said.

Overspeed was the cause of the accident, Ahmad Ahmadi, a local traffic police officer, was quoted as saying.