Bus kills at least 14 forced by thieves to lie on road

AT LEAST 14 bus passengers were killed in Nigeria on Tuesday night when a bus ran over them after they were forced to lie down on a main road during a robbery.

Nigerian police say that passengers travelling on an overnight bus from Lagos to the capital, Abuja, were forced to lie down on the road after the vehicle was stopped by a group of armed robbers at about 5am. Police spokesman Ajayi Okasanmi said that while the passengers were stretched out face down on the highway, a second bus came along and drove over them. Rescuers found the 14 bodies but there were also many people injured in the incident, he said. A number of the passengers who boarded the bus in Lagos are still missing.

Road safety officer Sunday Maku told local reporters that the bodies of the victims were “mangled” and difficult to identify, but that 10 men, three women and a little girl made up the 14 casualties. “We got a distress call that some armed robbers had intercepted a luxury bus at the Zariagi-Kabba junction at Zariagi, just some few kilometres to Kabba junction, where they ordered the passengers to alight from the bus and forced them to lie face flat on the main road. As the passengers were still lying on the road, the driver of another luxury bus was unaware that there were people lying on the road and, coming in at high speed, went over them, killing 14 of them on the spot,” he said.