34 people feared dead in Haiti after bus rams into crowd of bystanders

Tragedy struck in the northern Haitian city of Gonaives when a bus rammed into a crowd of bystanders killing 34 people and injuring 17 others.

Recounting the incident, Marie-Alta Jean Baptiste, head of Haiti’s civil protection office revealed that first, the bus ran over two pedestrians, killing one and injuring the other.

Continuing, Marie-Alta Jean Baptiste said that the driver then rammed into a band of street musicians while trying to speed away, killing 33 others. The incident took place about 150km from the capital, Port-au-Prince.

According to Faustin Joseph, a coordinator at the civic protection office in the Artibonite region, “The people who were not victims of the accident tried to burn the bus with the passengers inside”.

“The bus, the passengers, and the driver were all placed into the care” of local authorities, Joseph said.