PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- One passenger was killed and 40 others were wounded in a bus crash in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province on Monday, local police said.

The incident occurred roughly at 3:00 a.m. local time when a long-distance passenger bus skidded off the road and partly sank into the nearby river in Gerdab area of Baghlan-i-Markazi district, provincial police spokesman Jawid Basharat told Xinhua.

The wounded have been taken to a regional hospital in neighboring Kunduz province, he said.

Road mishaps are frequent and occur mostly due to poor driving or badly maintained roads and vehicles in the mountainous country.

On Tuesday, 17 people were killed when a minibus veered off a dusty road and fell off a mountain in Baghlan province.