Kenya bus plunges into river, at least 37 dead

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- At least 37 people were killed and 19 injured when a bus plunged off a bridge and into a river in eastern Kenya, police said on Friday.

The death toll from the Thursday night crash was expected to rise even higher as a rescue team searched for survivors and tried to recover the victims. Newspaper reports had said that at least 45 people were killed in the crash.

"We have reasonable fear that there could be some (more people) trapped under the ill-fated bus. A rescue team is on the scene," police spokesman Dola Indidis said.

The bus, with an official capacity of 65, was travelling to the southern coastal city of Mombasa on Thursday night when it ploughed off the bridge 50 km (30 miles) from the eastern town of Meru, a spot notorious for deadly accidents.

The bridge has now claimed more than 150 lives in the past five years.

Indidis said he could not confirm that the bus was carrying 80 people as reported by local newspapers, which also quoted survivors as saying the bus was going to quickly.

The Daily Nation said that at least 45 people were killed and that the death toll could rise at least 50.

It was the latest in a series of transport disasters in Kenya.

A train laden with gas exploded near Nairobi last Sunday, killing 29 people. Just days before, 13 people were killed when a passenger train came off the rails in western Kenya.

In April, 69 people perished when a bus collided with a truck on the highway between Nairobi and Mombasa. It followed a collision between two buses earlier in the month that killed 74 people in western Kenya.

Speeding, the poor state of Kenya's roads and over-loading have been blamed for the country's frequent road accidents.

Angry callers jammed Nairobi radio stations' telephone lines on Friday blaming President Daniel arap Moi's government, reckless driving and poor policing for the disasters.

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