A total of 22 people were killed and 24 injured when a bus carrying foreign workers collided with a truck in Al Ain in the emirate of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates on Monday morning, local media reported, citing local police.

The victims are said to be Asian cleaning workers who were commuting on a shuttle bus carrying 40 people, which crashed with a heavy transport truck.

The report said that the victims are Bengladeshi and Pakistani nationals.

Hussein Ahmed al-Harthi, head of Abu Dhabi Police Traffic and Patrol Directorate, attributed the cause of the accident to "the deviation of the truck from its route and collision with the bus as there were no brakes in the truck," the state-run Emarat Al Youm newspaper reported.

"There was also no sufficient distance between the truck and the bus," Harthi said, adding that "the victims were transferred to nearby hospitals."