Tanzania school bus crash kills dozens

More than 30 people, almost all of them schoolchildren, have been killed in a bus crash in northern Tanzania, officials say.

They say the bus plunged off the road in a steep ravine near the town of Karatu.

A number of people were hurt. Officials later tried to remove survivors and dead bodies from the vehicle.

The students from a primary school in Arusha were travelling to another school to sit an exam.

The final year pupils from the Lucky Vincent school - believed to be aged between 12 and 14 - were on their way to take mock exams when the accident happened on Saturday morning.

Two teachers and the driver were also killed.

President John Magufuli in a statement, described the accident as a "national tragedy".

Tanzania, the second-largest economy in east Africa, has a poor road safety network, but buses remain the main form of public transport between towns.

More than 11,000 people were killed in road accidents in Tanzania between 2014 and 2016, according to government data.


SOURCE: BBC News