21 killed in collision between two minibuses in South Africa

A tragic road accident in South Africa claimed the lives of at least 21 people after two minibuses collided head-on and a third vehicle later crashed into their wreckage.

The collision occurred on the N1 highway, on the stretch between the towns of Prince Albert and Leeu-Gamka in Western Cape province, around 380 kilometers east of Cape Town.

Authorities said that two Toyota minibuses and a Suzuki SUV were involved in the accident. The two minibuses initially collided head-on, while the SUV struck the damaged vehicles shortly afterward.

The initial death toll was 18 people at the scene. Three seriously injured people later died in hospital, while four others were left with serious injuries.

Photos and footage from the scene show the scale of the collision, with the vehicles destroyed and their parts scattered across a wide area of the road.

Police have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the accident and have opened a case for culpable homicide. So far, it has not been established what caused the head-on collision between the two minibuses.

Minibuses are one of the main forms of public transport in South Africa, but they are also frequently linked to serious road accidents.

The accident was one of two serious road incidents recorded in the country over the weekend. Another collision near Ermelo, in Mpumalanga province, claimed eight lives, bringing the number of people killed in the two accidents to at least 29.