25 killed in South African bus accident

Johannesburg: Twenty-five people died Monday when a bus rolled down a steep embankment in South Africa´s coastal Eastern Cape province, the country´s transport minister said.

“Reports indicate that the driver lost control of the bus, which subsequently rolled down a steep embankment, leaving 25 dead and approximately 62 injured,” Fikile Mbalula said in a statement.

“To lose so many lives in a single accident is devastating and shocking.”The bus was carrying over 80 mainly elderly people to the town centre in Butterworth, provincial transport department spokesman, Unathi Binqose, said.

It was travelling on a gravel road when it overturned.“The driver lost control of the vehicle and it rolled down a very steep embankment,” Binqose said, adding that the driver figured among the dead.The crash was the deadliest accident in the province since 2015 when 35 people lost their lives.Binqose said checks would be carried out if the bus had been roadworthy as “it may be a contributing factor”.