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ARUSHA/ABUJA. — A bus crash in Tanzania that claimed the lives of 32 primary school pupils, two teachers and the driver was likely caused by speeding, police said.

“Preliminary investigations show that the accident is due to speeding,” regional police chief Charles Mkumbo told the state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation on Saturday.

Some reports said the people on the bus were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.

The accident happened early on Saturday when the bus went off the road and into the Marera river gorge in Karatu district near the northern city of Arusha where the children were attending Lucky Vincent Primary School.

The final year primary pupils were on their way to sit mock examinations ahead of seeking places at secondary school. “It’s a huge tragedy,” Innocent Mushi, the school’s director said.

President John Magufuli sent his condolences to the families of the dead. “This accident extinguishes the dreams of these children who were preparing to serve the nation, it is an immense pain for the families involved and for the whole nation,” Magufuli said in a statement.

“Preliminary investigations show that the accident is due to speeding,” regional police chief Charles Mkumbo told the state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation late on Saturday.

In a related development, 26 travellers were burnt to death in Nigeria on Saturday at the Ibadan end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway when two commercial buses collided and caught fire immediately.

Eleven others were injured while a baby escaped unhurt.

His father was said to have thrown him out of one of the vehicles apparently after realising that he (father) had a little chance of getting out of the fire.

An eyewitness told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the baby “escaped death because his father threw him out through the window of the bus”.

The two buses were said to have collided when one was trying to overtake another vehicle.

Once the vehicles collided, they burst into flames, leaving most of the passengers trapped.

The victims were burnt beyond recognition.

Personnel of the Nigeria Police and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) who rushed to the scene evacuated the dead to the Adeoyo Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan for autopsy while the injured were taken to the University College Hospital (UCH) and Ibadan Central Hospital for treatment. — AFP/The Nation.