8 killed in South Africa bus crash

Cape Town : Eight people were killed and about 30 others injured on Thursday in an accident nearly 300 km east from here, police said.

The cause of the accident is being investigated. The bus was going from Cape Town toward Beaufort West.

The death toll may rise as passengers still lay trapped under the wreckage, Kenny Africa, traffic chief of the Western Cape Province, said.

Emergency and rescue workers were on the scene outside Beaufort West, a small township, while transportation officials were re-directing traffic from the crash site.

Traffic accidents are a daily phenomenon in South Africa, particularly during holidays, with more than 700,000 crashes a year on average, and three children dying every day due to road accidents, according to the Road Traffic Management Corporation.