Dozens killed in bus crash

A bus loaded with fuel drums crashed and caught fire in central Zambia, killing dozens of passengers, police said today.

Twenty people were confirmed dead, but that number was expected to double. Thirty-four others were injured, said Bryan Chitoba, the region’s police chief.

The driver lost control of the 76-seater bus after a tyre burst on Saturday in Kapiri Mposhi, about 130 miles north of the capital, Lusaka, he said.

The crash ignited plastic drums of diesel and paraffin on board, police said.

The bus was enroute from the northern town of Kitwe on Zambia’s copper belt to Mpulungu in the Northern Province.

The accident comes a week after a bus flipped over in eastern Zambia and rolled into a ditch, killing 38 people.

And last month, 27 people were killed when a bus and a truck collided head-on and plunged into a river about 100 miles north of Lusaka.