Thirty people were killed and four others seriously injured when a passenger minibus collided with a fuel tanker in central Uganda, police said on Monday.
A police spokesperson said 27 people on the bus died instantly, while three others suffocated as they scooped fuel that spilled from the Rwanda-bound tanker after the accident overnight on Sunday.
”A Kenyan-registered semi-trailer carrying petrol to Rwanda had a head-on collision last night near the town of Lugazi and none of the people on the minibus survived,” Ochom said by telephone.
”The three other people who died were choked by petrol [fumes] as they tried to scoop petrol which was flowing into the valley,” the spokesperson said.
The four injured, who were on the tanker, were admitted to a nearby hospital.
He said that the tanker swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle before colliding head-on with the minibus in Kikawula, about 40km east of the capital, Kampala — a spot that has claimed lives in the past.
Police blamed the accident on excessive speed. — Sapa-AFP