| |
 |
Kenya bus crash kills at least 14
|
TWO buses collided on a bridge along Kenya's Indian Ocean coast and plunged into a rain-swollen river, killing at least 14 people and injuring 28, police and hospital officials said on Monday. Dozens of people remained missing.
The buses were travelling on a bridge north of the tourist town of Malindi at sunset on Sunday when one of them slowed down to overtake a tourist van parked on the bridge. It was struck in the rear by the second bus and both broke through the guardrail, plunging into the crocodile-infested Sabaki River. Fourteen bodies had been pulled from the river.
Police and hospital officials said 28 people were hospitalized, three of them, including the driver and assistant of one bus, were in critical condition.
An official in Coast Province where the accident took place, said he didn't think any more survivors would be found, but added that he did not know how many people were on the buses.
The buses involved in the accident are allowed to carry about 30 people each, but buses in Kenya are notoriously overcrowded.
Police and navy divers were trying to pull the buses from the water with the help of a crane. Many of the victims were believed to have been trapped inside the submerged buses following the crash on a bridge over the swirling brown waters of the Sabaki River north of the Indian Ocean town of Malindi on Sunday.
Due to seasonal rains, the Sabaki River, 60 miles north of Mombasa, is running faster than normal. The bridge is located just 1,600 feet from where the river empties into the Indian Ocean and police fear bodies may have been swept out to sea.
Frustrated rescuers battled in vain to raise the buses from the heavily-silted river where Kenyan media said up to 100 bodies might be trapped.
Experts were seeking heavy lifting gear from a naval base in the country's second city Mombasa on the coast, saying the buses appeared to have become embedded in silt.
At the scene, frustration and anger mounted among relatives of victims who said they were being kept in the dark about rescue developments. Strong currents and a moonless night had hampered early rescue efforts as volunteers worked by the headlights of a truck. There was also a danger from hippos, which feed at night and can attack anything that interferes with their eating. (SD-Agencies)
|
|
|
|
