Four pupils killed in bus, lorry accident

Harare (New Ziana) -Four pupils were killed, and twenty-one others injured when the T-35 truck which they were travelling in was involved in an accident with a bus on Wednesday at the 81- kilometre peg along the Harare-Masvingo highway, police have confirmed.

The accident occurred around 4 PM when an Inter-Africa bus with 59 passengers on board hit the driver’s door of the truck travelling in the same direction whilst carrying 22 pupils.

The truck veered off the road and threw out all the pupils resulting in the instant death of one of the learners while three others died on admission at Beatrice Hospital.

The bodies of the deceased were taken to the hospital mortuary for postmortem. No one on the bus was injured.

Meanwhile police have expressed concern at the marked rise in kidnapping cases targeting school children with the enforcement agencies in the capital investigating a case in which an 11-year-old Grade 6 pupil was kidnapped by four unknown suspects who were travelling in a Toyota Noah on Monday, May 29 in Glenview high density suburb.

The child was later dumped along 13 Avenue in the same suburb.

Separately, a Grade 7 learner aged 12 years was kidnapped on Tuesday, May 30 near Chengetanai Old People’s Home in Chinhoyi by 3 unknown suspects who were travelling in a white commuter omnibus and later dumped in Avlon Park in the same city.

Meanwhile, on May 25 a 44-year-old woman was kidnapped by 3 unknown men travelling in a commuter omnibus which she had boarded at the Copa Cabana Bus Terminus in the capital intending to travel to Dzivarasekwa.

She was latter dumped at Maringire Village, Chivi, about 70 km south of Masvingo along the Masvingo-Beitbridge after the suspects agreed that she was too old for an unknown purpose.

Police appealed to members of the public with information on these kidnappings to report to any nearest police station.

New Ziana