47 dead as buses collide in Zimbabwe, say police

Representational picture

Forty-seven people were killed in Zimbabwe when two buses collided on a road between the capital Harare and the eastern town of Rusape, police said. "We confirm 47 people have died in a road traffic accident at the 166-kilometre peg along the Harare-Mutare highway," police spokesman Paul Nyathi said on Wednesday.

On Twitter, the state-run Herald newspaper said pictures from the scene were too graphic to post. It said the morgue at the local public hospital in Rusape had run out of space and sought help from a private funeral parlour to take in some of the corpses. Traffic accidents are common in Zimbabwe, where roads are riddled with potholes due to years of underfunding and neglect, but the highway where the accident occurred had been recently resurfaced.

In June last year, 43 people were killed in a bus crash in the north of the country, along the highway leading to neighbouring Zambia. Deputy Transport Minister Fortune Chasi said the government will take steps to curb the road carnage. "Totally needless loss of lives. This event should be the last before stern measures are taken," he tweeted, promising to rein in public service vehicles and their owners.

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