Cape Town – At least 18 people were killed when a truck laden with industrial acid collided with a bus, sources say.
AFP reports that the accident happened near the village of Fungurume, in a copper and cobalt mining area between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi in the southeast.
“A Tanzanian-registered tanker truck carrying acid hit a stationary bus. The acid poured out onto the passengers,” police captain Corneille Lwitetele, in charge of road traffic in Lualaba province, told AFP on Thursday.
He gave a toll of 21 dead and 12 injured, while Lualaba’s provincial health minister Samy Kayombo gave a figure of 18 dead and 12 hurt.
The UN radio channel Okapi said the damaged truck continued to spill its contents until midday on Thursday, and acid flowed as far as the village of Kabwe.
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