The bus was returning from Oman after the Eid holidays.

Seventeen people died and five others were critically injured when a bus full of holiday makers returning from Oman after the Eid holidays met with an accident near Rashidiya exit on Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road at 5.40pm on Thursday evening.

In a tweet, Dubai Police confirmed that the accident had taken place when the bus carrying 31 people over ran a traffic signal near the metro station. The police said 17 people of different nationalities had died in the accident while five were critically injured.

The dead and injured have been shifted to Rashid Hospital.

#Announcement on the unfortunate accident which occured at Dubai and led to fatalities and injuries pic.twitter.com/X15z3woPxH - ??????? MWASALAT-????? (@mwasalat_om) June 6, 2019

A Dubai resident whose friend was injured in the accident said that the family of three was returning from Oman after celebrating the Eid holidays.

"I got a call from my friend after the accident. He just told me he was injured," said the Indian national on condition of anonymity.

His wife and child were not injured. "We came to Rashid Hospital but we are unable to meet them as of yet," he said, adding that the status of their injuries was unknown.

The nephew of Firoz Aziz Pathan Khan and his wife Reshma Firoz Khan said they were missing. Speaking to Khaleej Times from Oman, Talha Sayyed said that the son of Firoz, who was also traveling with the couple from Sohar, was safe but there was no information about the couple. Talha said the family was traveling for holidays to Dubai. "We are not getting any information from the hospital," he said, adding that they were desperate to get details.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com