At least one person has been confirmed dead and several others injured after a bus overturned along the Kabale-Ntungamo Highway.

The Saturday night incident took place near a venue for a weekly market in Ntungamo Municipality.

Rwizi region police spokesperson Samson Kasasira told Monitor that the crash happened at around 9pm when a Nissan bus belonging to Horizon Bus Company suffered a tyre burst.

“It’s alleged that the bus was from Kisoro District heading to Kampala but on reaching Ntungamo market near Standard Secondary school in Ntungamo Municipality, it got a tyre burst causing the driver to lose control of the bus. It then overturned, killing a yet to be identified female passenger on spot, and seriously injuring other passengers,” Kasasira said on Sunday.

But he emphasized that investigations are underway “to ascertain the exact cause of the accident.”

Kasasira added that the victims were rushed to Itojo Hospital for treatment and the body of the deceased was conveyed to the same health facility’s mortuary for post-mortem.

The wreckage of the bus was still at the scene pending its towing to Ntungamo police station.

“…efforts to identify the survivors that were on board are ongoing,” police noted.

Since 2019, road accidents have been on the rise with more than 20,000 crashes reported in 2022, according to an annual police crime report.