An injured man is being treated in a hospital in Zahedan, southeastern Iran, June 24. A petroleum tanker truck crashed into several buses and a tar tanker on Thursday and killed more than 90. (Xinhua/Reuters)

The death toll in a road accident in southeast Iran has been confirmed to exceed 90, the official IRNA news agency reported Friday.

Ninety bodies have been recovered so far but the death toll could rise further, and the accident also injured 114 people who were taken to hospitals in Zahedan city, IRNA quoted a Red Crescent official as saying.

The collision took place at 22:30 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT) on Thursday, which set ablaze six buses full of passengers and another tanker that parked for inspection near a police station at the edge of Zahedan, capital city of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, state television reported.

Governor General of Zahedan Heidar Ali-Nouraei told IRNA that the explosion destroyed the six buses, a building and a light post near the police station.

Many of the passengers were burnt to death due to lack of extinguishment equipments, he said.

"It took time before firefighters reached the scene from Zahedan, 110 kilometers to the east," he added.

According to IRNA, most of the dead were women who had stayed in the passenger buses.

State TV reported that the tanker was carrying 18,000 liters of petrol and ran out of control.

Local medical units earlier said 100 people were feared dead, while the Red Crescent put the death toll at between 50 and 200.

Deputy provincial police head Mohammad Arab said police have launched an investigation to establish the cause of the accident.

Iran has one of the highest rates of road accident in the world. Official statistics showed that in every 24 minutes there is one person killed in road accident. Transport experts blame most of the accidents on hazardous roads and reckless driving.