Sixty-five people were killed and seven injured in the West African state of Guinea after the lorry in which they were travelling toppled into a lake.
Officials said the accident late on Monday near the town of Gueckedou, about 700km south-east of the capital, was one of the deadliest in decades.
The van toppled into the water when it tried to cross a narrow bridge, according to survivors.
”The vehicle overturned into a lake. There were 65 dead,” said a doctor at Gueckedou Hospital. Thirty-nine of those killed were women, eight of them pregnant.
The truck, carrying 72 people, was heading to a weekly market in Koudou, 40km west of Gueckedou, near the border with Sierra Leone.
Claiming the truck was overloaded, police have opened an investigation into the disaster.
One police source said it was the worst road accident ”in the past 30 years”.
The driver and six passengers who were seriously injured were taken to Gueckedou Hospital.
Witnesses said most of the casualties were Guinean traders.
”Never since independence [in 1958] have we had such a fatal accident in this country,” Alpha Djouma Diallo, leader of a local trade union for the transport sector, told Agence France-Presse.
Due to insufficient public transport, trucks are often used to ferry people in parts of Africa. Bad roads have also contributed to high rates of fatal accidents. — Sapa-AFP