20 children crushed to death by trailer in South Africa

Not fewer than 20 children were crushed to death today in Mpumalanga Province, North of the capital Pretoria, South Africa.

Emergency services tweeted photographs of the badly damaged minibus, which they said exploded into a ball of fire after the crash.

Russel Meiring, spokesman for medical service ER24, said: ‘The number is now at least 17 fatalities.’

He said about 20 children were on board.

ER24 has since released an update on Twitter confirming the number of fatalities has risen to 20.