The authorities in the province of Manica, in Mozambique, say that only two bodies are still missing from the road accident that killed 20 people last Thursday (07), in the village of Catandica, in the district of Báruè.

The accident occurred when a passenger car crashed into a cargo truck and the fatalities include adults and children. The vehicle was traveling in the direction of Catandica, the seat of the Guro district.

The accident also injured three people and caused extensive material damage to the two vehicles. The 20 people were charred to death after the passenger car caught fire.

The car accident was caused by uncontrolled burning, which caused smoke to billow from the side of the road, reducing the visibility of the driver of the passenger car. After the crash, the passenger car fell into the burning forest.

Quoted by AIM, the administrator of the Báruè district, David Franque, explained that the support of the Catandica and Guro community radio stations, which asked relatives to go to the morgue where the remains were located, contributed to the identification of the bodies.

"At the moment, 18 bodies have been claimed. There are only two left and we are still trying to locate their relatives. We are counting on the collaboration of community and religious leaders in this work," said Franque, adding that "we carried out the autopsy with the knowledge of the victims' relatives and the two unclaimed bodies are still in the morgue of the Báruè District Hospital. In the meantime, we are making efforts to locate the victims' relatives.

The source stressed that "we have the support of other neighboring districts. There's good cooperation, looking at the level of response we had over the five days."

This is the second road accident with a high number of fatalities in Manica province. The first occurred at the beginning of this year, when a cargo truck crashed and killed nine people in the district town of Gondola.