Lorry crushes Nigerian passenger bus in Lagos

A lorry pulling a 20ft (6m) shipping container has toppled over, crushing a passenger bus on a bridge in the Nigerian city of Lagos.

Lagos state’s emergency management agency (Lasema) said nine people, including two children, had been killed in the accident at Ojuelegba bridge on Sunday afternoon.

“The bus was picking up passengers when it [the lorry] lost control and fell over the side of the bridge,” Lasema head Dr Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu said in a series of tweets.

One woman was rescued alive after a forklift truck was able to the suspend the container allowing the top of the bus to be cut off, he said.

The traffic authorities tweeted some photos of the rescue operation:

Driving in Nigeria is notoriously dangerous. Roads in Lagos are jammed with traffic and many drivers do not have licences, with vehicles that are often poorly maintained.