A bus accident followed by a fire left at least 38 dead in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the worst road tragedy in Brazil since 2007.
A bus accident followed by a fire, which President Lula described as a “terrible tragedy”, left at least 38 dead on Saturday in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais (southeast), police announced.
It is the worst road accident in the country since 2007, according to police data cited by the Brazilian press.
In the latest official report, the police confirmed “38 dead”. Eight people are hospitalized in serious condition.
Among those killed were the bus driver and at least one child, noted firefighters, who needed a crane to remove the charred bodies.
They had previously specified that there were thirteen survivors, who were taken care of by the emergency services.
The bus was traveling on the highway linking Sao Paulo (southeast) to Vitória da Conquista, in the state of Bahia (northeast).
According to testimonies collected by firefighters, there are two versions of what happened.
According to the first, one of the bus's tires burst in the middle of the night, around 3:30 a.m., leading the driver to lose control of the vehicle and hit a truck.
The second version mentions a block of granite which was transported by the truck and which fell on the bus, which was following it. After the collision, the bus caught fire.
Another vehicle hit the rear of the bus, but its occupants survived the impact.
Firefighters initially said they had fought the flames and saved 22 bodies, then they revised the death toll upwards after accessing another part of the bus using a crane.
A fire department spokeswoman told AFP by telephone that it was difficult to establish an exact count of victims “because of the state of the bodies.”
Brazil bus road accident Lula
