DHAKA, April 1 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were killed and some 26 others injured when a passenger bus veered off the road and fell into a ditch in Bangladesh's Gopalganj district, some 127 km southwest of capital Dhaka, early Sunday.

Ejajul Islam, a Highway Police official, said that the accident occurred at around 3:00 a.m. (local time) Sunday as the bus driver lost control over the steering and plunged the vehicle into a ditch.

"The passenger bus fell into a road side ditch, leaving six passengers dead on the spot and some 28 were injured,"he said.

Two of the injured died later at a local hospital, he added.

Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates for road accidents in the world mainly due to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules by inept drivers and lack of monitoring of the traffic department.