Forty-seven killed as bus crashes into UN food relief truck

Forty-seven people have been killed as a truck loaded with UN food relief collided with a speeding bus in Uganda.

Seven of the bus passengers remain in a critical condition after the bus heading from Burundi to Kampala crossed the border between Rwanda and Uganda.

The Jagwa line bus owned by an Ugandan businessman was traveling north from Bujumbura, Burundi to Kampala when it attempted to pass a smaller vehicle and hit the oncoming southbound truck carrying sacks of corn to Burundi for the UN World Food Programme.

On September 19 police had stopped the driver of the bus, whose name he did not give, on the main highway south of Kampala and fined him for recklessly passing a number of vehicles.

"We're still investigating the cause of the accident. We need to check on the condition of the vehicles and examine the bodies of the drivers to find out whether they were drunk," a police spokesman said.

"It's really a long process, and so many other factors have to be taken into account."