At least 24 people were killed and scores more injured in the Eastern Cape when a bus careened down a 200m embankment into a river near the town of Cedarville.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Zandra Wiid said that by late on Tuesday she could confirm that 24 people had died at the accident scene, about 15km south of Cedarville.
During the course of the day there were conflicting reports of how many people were injured and killed, ranging from 20 to 30 dead.
Wiid said that all the dead were being taken to the mortuary in Kokstad and that she hoped to provide an accurate figure later.
Inspector Troy Allison from the police’s Search and Rescue Unit said that 17 bodies had to be airlifted by a South African Airforce Oryx helicopter that was dispatched from Durban.
Wiid said a police dog had also searched the ravine to ensure that no bodies or injured were left behind.
She said the cause of the accident was not immediately known, but that surviving passengers had told officers at the scene that the bus driver appeared to be having problems engaging the gears when he lost control.
Wiid said that it is believed that the bus driver was among those killed.
The bus was on its way from the settlement of Mvanyane to Cedarville, when the accident occured.
Most of the injured transported by EMRS ambulances were taken to Taylor Bequest hospital in the nearby town of Matatiele. It is believed that hospitals in Kokstad also received patients. One patient was reported to have been taken to Umtata.
Wiid said it was not known how many people were in the bus. Unconfirmed reports said there were as many as 80.
The bus was smashed to pieces and lying upside down in the river, believed to be a tributary of the Umzimvubu River.
Hundreds of people and police officers watched from the side of the badly rutted dirt road as the Oryx helicopter made several trips to the accident where it lifted the bodies that had been loaded into bags by the members of the police’s search and rescue unit.
Late in the afternoon mortuary vans and ambulances could be seen heading slowly to the Kokstad mortuary.
Cedarville is midway between the towns of Kokstad and Matatiele. – Sapa