Shocking: 20 school children died in a road accident in South Africa.

BBC is reporting that eighteen children and two adults have been killed in a minibus crash near the South African capital Pretoria, emergency services have said.

Many of the children were thought to be trapped in the bus after it crashed in Mpumalanga province, north of the city of Pretoria, in the north-east of the country.

Panyaza Lesufi, the official responsible for education in Gauteng province, said it was a "dark day". The minibus collided with a truck on the single carriageway R25, between Verena in Mpumalanga and Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng, having left from Mahlenga High.

The emergency services rescued seven children before the bus burst into flames. "It is believed the driver of minibus underestimated the speed of the truck and collided with him whilst turning," the Gauteng Education Department said in a statement.


Russel Meiring, spokesman for the ER24 emergency medical service, said: "Paramedics arrived on the scene to find the fire services already in attendance. The fire services had already extinguished the burning vehicle, which was found lying on its side."

"Once the flames had been extinguished, paramedics found that approximately 13 children [were] lying trapped inside the vehicle. Unfortunately, nothing could be done for the children and they were declared dead on the scene," the statement added.

ER24 and the Gauteng Education Department have since confirmed the number has risen to 20. However, the education department later clarified two of the dead were adults.

"This is a huge loss and we're deeply pained by the tragic news," the education department tweeted.