Rabat: Two road crashes in central Morocco killed 16 people in less than 24 hours, official media reported on Wednesday.

In the first accident, late on Tuesday near the town of Youssoufia, a lorry driver lost control of his vehicle after one of its tyres was punctured, and crashed into a bus.

At least 12 people were killed in the crash, which also left one passenger critically injured, the report said.

Police arrested the driver, who was lightly injured.

On Wednesday morning, another four people were killed and two injured when a lorry crashed into a light vehicle on the main road linking Casablanca, Morocco's largest city, with Beni Mellal to the southeast, the same source said.

The North African country has a poor road safety record, with accidents claiming 4,200 lives in 2011, a rise of around 12 percent on the previous year, according to figures from the transport ministry.

Sixteen people were killed in a single bus crash in southwestern Morocco last month, among them several foreigners.