Eighteen passengers burnt to death on Sunday when the bus they were travelling in hit a stray cow, overturned and burst into flames in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, a police representative said.
Captain John Fobian said at least four children were among the dead.
He said the bus with 40 passengers was returning to the southern coastal town of George from a funeral in the province’s Transkei region when it hit the stray animal near Fort Beaufort, about 900 kilometres east of Cape Town.
It veered out of control and overturned before bursting into flames: ”Most of those who were trapped have been burnt beyond recognition — and according to rescue personnel on the scene it is one of the most gruesome accidents they have seen in years,” Fobian told the Sapa news agency.
Those passengers who survived are believed to have escaped the inferno by jumping out of the bus’s windows.
Most suffered some sort of injury and were taken by ambulance and private transport to the Fort Beaufort Provincial Hospital.
”It is so difficult to identify the victims, I doubt if even the families will be able to identify them,” an unnamed hospital worker told SABC radio news.
Police are investigating homicide charges. – Sapa