An overcrowded bus collided with a truck and caught fire on Saturday in BrazilAccording to the fire brigade, more than thirty people died.
After all victims were removed from a major highway near the town of Teofilo Otoni in Minas Gerais, the state fire brigade reported that of the 45 people on the bus, 38, including the bus driver, had been declared dead.
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The other passengers remained in critical condition after being transported to a local hospital.
The truck driver fled and three occupants of a car that crashed into the truck and became trapped underneath survived the crash, the fire department said.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated on social media that the government was ready to provide whatever assistance was needed, and that the Federal Highway Policy was on the spot.
A map of Brazil. (Encyclopedia Britannica/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“I mourn deeply and extend my prayers to the families of the more than thirty victims of the accident in Teofilo Otoni, Minas Gerais. I pray for the recovery of the survivors of this terrible tragedy,” he wrote on X.
A forensic investigation will be needed to determine the cause of the accident as several statements have been gathered from witness statements, the local fire brigade said.
Initially, firefighters reported that the bus had suffered a tire blowout, causing the driver to lose control before colliding with an oncoming truck around 4 a.m. local time on the BR-116 federal highway, a major route connecting Brazil’s densely populated southeastern the poorer northeast. .
However, witnesses also reported that a granite block the truck was carrying came loose, fell onto the road and caused the collision with the bus, fire officials said.
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“Only the forensic investigation will confirm the true version,” the fire brigade said in a statement.
The bus left from Sao Paulo and was on his way to the state of Bahia.
