Zimbabwe bus fire: More than 40 people killed in blaze on Bulawayo-Beitbridge highway

Cause of tragedy as yet unknown but pictures show vehicle was completely incinerated

Remains of a bus involved in an accident which killed 40 people in Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe Red Cross/Twitter)

Police in Zimbabwe say more than 40 people have been killed in an horrific bus accident.

Spokeswoman Charity Charamba says another 20 were injured - some with severe burns - in the incident on Thursday night.

Pictures posted online by the Zimbabwe Red Cross showed the double-decker vehicle, which was travelling on the Bulawayo-Beitbridge highway, had been entirely incinerated in a fire.

An accompanying tweet said the organisation's "first aid teams responded to a horrific accident around midnight at the 56km peg from Gwanda towards Beitbridge involving a South African bound bus".

The cause of the tragedy remains unknown.

It follows barely a week after some 47 passengers were killed in another bus accident in the country. In the earlier incident, on 7 November, two long-distance coaches going in opposite directions collided head on and at spend near the town of Rusape.