• The bus plunged off a bridge about 40 metres (130 feet) into the Nithi River valley below.
• The crash happened late Sunday while the bus was travelling from Meru to Mombasa.
• A thorough multi-agency investigation into the crash and an evaluation of the operator’s safety operational standards is currently under way.

Thirty-three people were killed when a bus crashed into a river near a notorious accident hotspot in central Kenya officials said Monday.

The crash happened late Sunday while the bus was travelling from Meru to the coastal city of Mombasa.

The bus plunged off a bridge about 40 metres (130 feet) into the Nithi River valley below.

Pictures published in local media showed the bus ripped apart after rolling down the steep slope, with reports saying wreckage and bodies were strewn in the water and on the riverbank.

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) said in a statement on Twitter that 33 people had died and that it had halted the operations of the bus company involved, Modern Coast Express Ltd.

“A thorough multi-agency investigation into the crash and an evaluation of the operator’s safety operational standards is currently under way,” it added.

County commissioner Norbert Komora had told reporters earlier: “The search is still on and we are trying to retrieve the wreckage.

“Investigations are still going on to establish the cause of the accident”.

In recent years, the number of people killed on Kenyan roads has increased.

According to NTSA data, 1,912 people were killed in the first half of 2022, up from 1,754 in the same period last year.

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