OUAGADOUGOU (AFP) – At least 66 people died Saturday when a bus and a truck collided and caught fire in Burkina Faso in one of West Africa’s worst road accidents, the transport minister said.

“We bemoan 96 victims, of whom 66 have died,” Gilbert Noel Ouedraogo said. “Of the 66, 55 bodies were completely charred. There are 30 injured admitted in hospital.”

Earlier court prosecutor Maiza Compaore told AFP by telephone from the site of the accident near Boromo, 167 kilometres (105 miles) west of the capital Ouagadougou, that the two vehicles caught fire.

“The scene is gruesome … there are bodies on the road, some are in the wreckage, there are charred bodies which are still being removed. It’s really horrible.”

She said the bus driver, who was carrying a passenger list, had survived but was still too shocked to be questioned by police.

The bus and the truck carrying sugar had collided around 5:30 am (0530 GMT) six kilometres from Boromo, Compaore had said.

Burkina Faso’s minister for social action, Pascaline Tamini, expressing profound sadness, offered the condolences of President Blaise Compaore, Prime Minister Tertius Zongo and the government.

Roads in West African countries are notoriously dangerous, especially at night.

In May 46 Nigerian soldiers returning from an African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan, were killed in a collision between a petrol tanker and an army convoy.

In March 2007 in Guinea 70 people travelling in the back of a truck were killed when the vehicle overturned while crossing a narrow wooden bridge.