A Red Cross truck carrying relief supplies for Rohingya Muslim refugees skidded off a hilly road in Bangladesh and plunged into a paddy field on Thursday, killing nine people and injuring 10, police said.

Officials said the truck was carrying food to some of the several thousand refugees stranded in a no-man’s-land on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

The driver lost control of the truck on a rain-soaked narrow road and went into a ditch near the Chhakdala border post, some 50 kilometers from Cox’s Bazar, they said.  
  
“Nine people were killed including six on the spot and three in a hospital,” Yasir Arafat, deputy police chief of the Bandarban border district, told AFP.

At least 10 people were injured.

The victims were laborers traveling in the truck to help distribute the aid supplies.

The accident highlighted difficulties faced by aid agencies as they struggle to reach some 420,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

The UN has described Myanmar’s military offensive as ethnic cleansing.

Meanwhile, Buddhist protesters in Myanmar threw petrol bombs to try to block a shipment of aid to the Rohingya in Rakhine.

Hundreds of protesters were involved in the attempt to stop Red Cross workers loading a boat with relief supplies.

The incident late on Wednesday reflected rising communal animosity, and came as US President Donald Trump called for a quick end to the violence that has raised concern about Myanmar’s transition from military rule.

The aid shipment was bound for the north of the Rakhine State.