adminRABAT. -A head-on collision between a truck and a bus carrying a delegation of young athletes in southern Morocco has killed 31 people and injured nine, according to the state news agency and local media reports.
A video posted by the French-language L’Économiste showed the flaming wreckage of the double-decker tour bus, which caught fire after hitting what the newspaper identified as a tanker truck carrying hydrocarbons near the southern desert city of Tan- Tan.
The video shows people wandering around the flaming frame of the bus – the truck has been flattened and apparently destroyed.
According to details provided by the Le360.ma news site, the bus was carrying athletes and officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports that were involved in a national sports competition.
The Les Échos newspaper reported on its website that the athletes were from the northern town of Bouznika and from Laâyoune, a city further to the south in the annexed Western Sahara territory. It added that celebrated 10km runner Hassan Issengar (31) was among the dead. A South African pilot was killed when a light aircraft crashed in Zambia, a close family friend told News24 yester- day.
Meanwhile, a South African pilot was killed when a light aircraft crashed in Zambia, a close family friend told News24 yesterday.
Frans Haasbroek, himself a former police pilot, said Captain Mike O’Donnell (41) was flying the six-seater Eurocopter B3 Squirrel from Angola to Zambia when it crashed.
No one else was on board.
“Mike has been a very close friend of mine for over 20 years now. He flew in the SANDF . . . he was an extremely dedicated policeman and excellent pilot,” Haasbroek told News24. – AP-News 24.
“He chalked up a huge amount of flying hours, risking his own life for others doing rescues across the province of KZN. It is an extremely sad day for all of us who knew him and it is certainly a loss to the police force and the aviation fraternity at large.
“It is also a massive knock to his friends and family.”
The Times of Zambia reported on its website that the plane crashed and burnt to a shell in Mazabuka on Thursday.
Only one charred body was reportedly recovered at the scene.
Zambia’s Southern Province police chief Mary Chikwanda told the newspaper that the fixed wing plane crashed around 13:00.
She said police were still investigating the number of passengers who were on board at the time of the crash, and whether they were South African.
It was a South African-registered plane.
Department of International Relations spokesperson Clayson Monyela could not immediately confirm the accident.
“We are still waiting for more information,” he said. – News24
Online Reporter