A head-on collision between a truck and a bus carrying a delegation of young athletes in southern Morocco has killed 31 people and injured nine, according to the state news agency and local media reports.

A video posted by the French-language L’Économiste shows the flaming wreckage of the double-decker tour bus, which caught fire after hitting what the newspaper identified as a tanker truck carrying hydrocarbons near the southern desert city of Tan-Tan.

The video shows people wandering around the flaming frame of the bus – the truck has been flattened and apparently destroyed.

According to details provided by the Le360.ma news site, the bus was carrying athletes and officials from the ministry of youth and sports that were involved in a national sports competition.

The Les Échos newspaper reported on its website that the athletes were from the northern town of Bouznika and from Laâyoune, a city further to the south in the annexed Western Sahara territory. It added that celebrated 10km runner Hassan Issengar, 31, was among the dead.

According to the US State Department website, road accidents are a significant hazard in Morocco.

Although there are modern highways between the main cities, the rest of the country is served by two-lane roads, often in poor condition, and reckless driving habits, such as overtaking on curves, are quite common.

According to the World Health Organisation, 5,217 people died in 2010 from road accidents. New stricter laws have been put in place, however, to compensate for historically light enforcement of traffic rules.