Guinea-Bissau: Land Mine Blast Kills 19 Passengers on Bus
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Version 0 of 1. At least 19 people aboard a minibus were killed when the vehicle struck a land mine, the police said Saturday. Ten other people were injured, several seriously, in the blast on a little-used route some 40 miles north of the capital, Bissau, as the vehicle swerved to avoid water in its path, the police and witnesses said. Three people, including the driver, emerged unscathed. “The vehicle was overloaded,” one survivor said. “I was on the roof with some other passengers when we heard a loud boom. The bus was cut in two.” The blast was so powerful that the bodies of most of the victims were flung across nearby fields, he added. The injured were taken to the country’s largest hospital, with ambulances shuttling to and from the site of the explosion. An army mine disposal team was sent in investigate the explosion and the type of mine that had caused it. The mine could date to the country’s struggle for independence from Portugal 40 years ago, military sources told national radio. |