A traffic accident in western Afghanistan has killed 73 people, including 17 children, most of whom were on a bus carrying Afghan migrants deported from Iran, a Taliban official confirmed to BBC Pashto.

The bus, en route to Kabul, caught fire on Tuesday night after colliding with a truck and motorcycle in Herat province, said Ahmadullah Mottaqi, the Taliban's director of information and culture in Herat.

Everyone aboard the bus was killed, as well as two people from the other vehicles, he said.

In recent months Iran has stepped up its deportations of undocumented Afghan migrants who have fled conflict in their homeland, according to BBC.