14 killed as 2 busses crash in Ivory Coast, dozens hurt

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — A bus carrying mourners to a funeral collided with another bus on the outskirts of Ivory Coast’s capital city Thursday, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens, emergency responders said.

Photos of the crash site posted on social media showed victims lying on the ground under one of the destroyed buses, with debris and people’s personal belongings scattered in the dirt.

A fire brigade in the capital of Yamoussoukro detailed the casualties in a Facebook post.

“We saw several seriously injured people and the priority was evacuations,” local fire department chief Yannick Koui told the Ivory Coast state news agency AIP.

AIP reported that some of the victims were foreigners, and that one of the vehicles was transporting a woman who had died in Europe. It was not immediately clear which country they were from, or if any of the foreigners were killed.

Nine people were killed instantly and five others died after being taken to hospital, the firefighters said. The drivers of both vehicles died at the scene, AIP reported.