South Africa bus crash: woman, 8, is sole survivor as ravine plunge kills 45 pilgrims | EUROtoday

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An eight-year-old woman was the only survivor of a horrific bus crash in South Africa that killed at the least 45 pilgrims on an Easter weekend journey.

Forensic investigators have been looking for the our bodies of victims after the bus plunged 164ft off a bridge right into a ravine and caught hearth.

Authorities stated it appeared that the driving force misplaced management and hit the boundaries alongside the facet of the bridge, in a mountainous area close to the city of Mokopane, about 125 miles north of Pretoria.

“We were at the scene,” stated native resident Simone Mayema, who stated he was one of many first to reach. “We tried to help [but] there was nothing we could do because there was flames.”

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa stated the victims, who all seemed to be from Botswana, had been on their method to the city of Moria in Limpopo for a preferred Easter weekend pilgrimage that pulls a whole bunch of hundreds of worshippers from South Africa and neighbouring nations who observe the Zion Christian Church.

South African transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, who was within the area for a highway security marketing campaign, modified her plans to be able to go to the crash scene. More than 200 individuals died in highway crashes throughout the Easter weekend in South Africa final yr.

The Zion Christian Church has its headquarters in Moria and this yr is the primary time its Easter pilgrimage has been set to go forward because the Covid-19 pandemic. The worshippers collect near the place a large star — the church’s emblem — and the phrases “Zion City Moria” are painted in white on a hillside.