At least 40 people have been killed in Kilimanjaro Region, Northern Tanzania when two buses collided and burst into flames.
One of the vehicles was a Mitsubishi Rosa Minibus which was travelling from Same Township heading to Moshi Municipality, reportedly carrying people who were on their way to a wedding ceremony.
The Minibus was involved in a head-on collision with an oncoming cross-country passenger coach belonging to a company known as ‘Channel One!’ This happens to be a larger bus, which was said to have been traveling from Moshi heading to Tanga Region.
According to eyewitnesses the impact of the deadly collision which occurred at the Saba-Saba section of Same District, in Kilimanjaro region, was deafening and the two passenger transport vehicles were then engulfed in huge flames following a massive fire explosion.
By the time The Tanzania Times reached the scene of the horrid accident, the two vehicles had already been reduced to ashy shells.
The fire, apparently hindered the rescue operations.
Many bodies that were later seen strewn in the area had been badly charred to soot.
The Kilimanjaro Regional Fire and Rescue Commander, Jeremiah Mkomagi, who was supervising the rescue operation, admitted the futility of the mission, explaining that they had only managed to retrieve 36 bodies from the mangled wrecks.
However there were still some lucky passengers who got rescued alive, albeit suffering serious injuries and burns.
“So far, a total of 36 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage,” stated the Fire and Rescue Commander, fearing that more could have been trapped in the metallic pileup.
Meanwhile also a total of 23 injured persons have been pulled from the scene of the accident and these have already been rushed to hospital for treatment.
Until going to press on Saturday night, local residents in the area were still struggling to rescue people and retrieve the dead bodies from the crashed buses.