Gas tank explosion kills 42 passengers

At least 42 passengers have been confirmed dead , Zimbabwe police said on Friday , after a suspected gas tank exploded on a bus, with pictures showing the burnt- out wreckage of the vehicle .

“At the moment we know that more than 42 people died ,” police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told
AFP after the accident late on Thursday , with state media reporting a gas tank belonging to a passenger was believed to have exploded .

“Our police officers are at the scene,” Charamba added .
The state – owned Herald newspaper said on its Twitter feed that “it is suspected a gas tank belonging to one of the passengers caused the inferno in the bus .
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“Dozens have been confirmed dead and several others injured through burns .”
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation published photographs showing the destroyed vehicle on a highway from the South African border crossing to the second city Bulawayo .
Last week , 47 people were killed when two buses collided on a road between the capital Harare and the eastern town of Rusape .
President Emmerson Mnangagwa said road safety had to be improved after that crash .
Traffic accidents are common in Zimbabwe , where roads are riddled with potholes due to years of underfunding and neglect , and driving standards can be poor .
In June last year , 43 people were killed in a bus crash in the north , along the highway leading to neighbouring Zambia.