According to local officials, a bus and a lorry collided in southern Tanzania on Sunday killing 28 people.

The accident took lace near the town of Mbeya, 630 km southwest of Dar el Salaam.

“The bus with registration number T443 APF owned by SABCO Company was heading to Dar el Salaam from Tunduma when the accident occurred at around 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT),” Mbeya Regional Traffic Officer Stephen Mwinamila was quoted as saying in the Sunday News.

He said the ill-fated bus attempted to over-take a car, only to collide with the truck with registration number T220 ART that was coming from the opposite direction.

Mr. Mwinamila said by noon 10 bodies were already identified, adding that two of the deceased persons were pedestrians.

He said 33 of the injured passengers were admitted to the Chimala Mission Hospital, while eight others were at Mbeya Referral Hospital.

The newspapers carried photos of the bus with its metal twisted and passengers' belongings strewn over the ground.

The papers said 15 women and 13 men were killed. Three of the dead were traveling in the lorry.

Road accidents involving buses have become a great concern in the east African country. In June, at least 36 people died in two crashes in different parts of the country.

Hundreds of Mbeya residents thronged the referral hospital’s mortuary to identify the bodies that were brought to the hospital.

“I witnessed our driver attempting to overtake a car before the collision occurred. It was really bad and terrible,” Ms Mwambeje told the Sunday News from her hospital bed.