It was a bizzare incident as some fifteen people were reported dead and 37 injured on Friday when a bus and a truck collided on a South African highway near the capital Pretoria.
“The death toll is now 15 dead, and 37 people have been injured, some of them critically,” spokesman Thabo Charles Mabaso said.
The accident happened before dawn, and rescue workers were called at 5:05 am.
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“Emergency services arrived on scene to find a bus and truck that collided head-on, with multiple patients lying around and some still trapped inside both vehicles,” emergency services said in a statement.
Eight women and seven men died at the scene, while 37 others were taken to hospital. Seven were in critical condition, the statement said.
The road was closed throughout the morning. An investigation into the accident’s cause has been launched.
South Africa’s roads are among the most developed on the continent, but safety remains an issue.
Nearly 1,500 people died on the roads during the last Christmas holidays, which is South Africa’s peak summer travel season.
In another report, over 20 people have been killed by suspected insurgents affiliated with the Islamic State of the West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Dikwa Borno State.
The residents were said to have left their normal camp around the village and strayed several kilometres beyond the designated safe zone to scavenge for scrap metallic materials only to be confronted by desperate insurgents who also gather same for money.
Some civilian JTF sources who spoke with Newsmen claimed they were able to gather about 20 bodies after the incident when they rushed to the scene of the attack on Tuesday
He said as of yesterday, Thursday, the number of casualties had risen to 25, saying the attackers employed killer shots done at close range against their victims.
