Thirty-seven people, mostly students, were burnt to death in Zimbabwe when the bus they were travelling in crashed last night.
A police spokesman and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said the bus exploded into flames after colliding with a haulage truck on the road linking the capital Harare and southern Masvingo town.
ZBC television showed police and emergency medical service staff pulling some bodies and pieces of human flesh out of the wreckage, watched by grief-stricken provincial administration officials.
The bus was carrying students from Masvingo Teachers' College who were attending a sports tournament in Harare, officials said.
"We are still trying to get details on how many passengers were actually on the bus because we understand that more students jumped onto the bus than those who were registered to go on the trip," the police spokesman said.
Some of the dead were burnt beyond recognition, he said. Masvingo Governor Josiah Hungwe told Zimbabwe state media that the bus crash was one of the most horrific traffic accidents in the history of the southern African country, and that President Robert Mugabe's government would assist with burials.
Acting President Joseph Msika, standing in for Mugabe who is in Rome attending a United Nations food conference, said the government had declared the accident a "state of disaster" and would assist families of the victims.