Fifteen Asian workers were killed and many others injured when a bus carrying them rammed into the rear of a truck parked on the hard shoulder of a motorway outside Dubai.

The accident happened on Emirates Road, a busy route that connects Abu Dhabi to the north of the UAE, bypassing Dubai itself.

The dead workers were identified as Indian and Bangladeshi welders and fabricators who were heading to the worksite in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone. Sixteen others were also injured in the accident, the media reports said.

According to Dubai Police, the incident happened when the bus collided with the truck after the Dubai Club Bridge in the direction of Al Ruwaiyah.

The truck driver said he was forced to park the vehicle on the road side after the brake system failed, the reports said, citing police officials.

The workers said they had left their housing facility in Umm Al Quwain and were headed to their work site in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone when the accident happened on Emirates Road (formerly Bypass Road), reported the Gulf News.

The Pakistani drivers of the mangled bus and the truck have been placed in provisional custody, officials said. The case has been referred to the Dubai Public Prosecution, they added.