Nine people died in a collision between a minibus taxi and a bakkie on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast late on Saturday afternoon, police and paramedics said.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Zandra Hechter said that details of the crash at the resort town of Southbroom were not immediately available.
Initial reports from the accident scene indicated that the driver of the north-bound bakkie had lost control after a tyre apparently burst. Hechter said the bakkie then went across the road, striking another bakkie on the side before colliding head-on with the minibus taxi.
The occupants of the minibus taxi were returning home from a church service. Initial reports indicated that 16 people were trapped in the taxi.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said that the local fire brigade was on scene attempting to extract the injured. He said that eight people had died on the scene and one patient on the way to hospital.
The injured were being ferried by Netcare 911 and the provincial emergency medical rescue services to Port Shepstone Provincial Hospital.
KwaZulu-Natal transport department spokesperson Colin Govender said there were eight people in the bakkie and at least 13 in the taxi.
Paramedics on scene reported that seven people in the bakkie had died and two in the taxi. One person who had been in the taxi was listed as critical.
Last month, seven people were killed when a bus overturned on the R620 near the Riverbend Crocodile Farm near Southbroom.
In nearby Port Shepstone, another seven people were also killed last month when a bus collided with a fire engine that was responding to an emergency call. Three firefighters were among the dead in that accident. — Sapa