Thirteen persons lost their lives while five others sustained varying degrees of injuries in a road crash at Busuri village on the Bulkachuwa-Dambam road in Bauchi State on Friday.

That the crash occurred when a Toyota Hiace bus had a head on collision with an Iveco truck at about 8.45pm.

This was contained in a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, Bauchi State Command, Haruna Mohammed, which was made available to newsmen on Sunday in Bauchi.

Mohammed said, On the 29/05/2015 at about 20:45hrs (8.45pm), there was a head on collision at Busuri village along Bulkachuwa-Dambam road, Bauchi, involving a Blue Toyota model F Hiace bus marked AQ 79 AKR (Ondo) driven by one Sule Abubakar, male, (28), of Bulkachuwa town, in Bauchi State and a White Iveco truck with number plate XBOX 907 GWL (Kano).

The accident occurred when the vehicles, coming from opposite directions, suddenly collided.

Mohammed stated that police patrol team, attached to Azare Division of the command, rushed to the scene of the accident and evacuated the victims to the Federal Medical Centre, Azare, for medical attention.

The PPRO stated that it was at the hospital that 13 persons, including the driver of the Toyota bus, were certified dead by a medical doctor.

He added that the remains of the deceased were deposited at the mortuary of the hospital for post-mortem examination, while the victims, who sustained injuries, were receiving treatment.

He gave the identities of some of the victims so far identified as Sule Abubakar, male, (28) of Bulkachuwa; Buba Shuaibu (30) of Doleri village; Ibrahim Mohammed (25) of Busuri; Yusuf Busuri (17) of Busuri and Sadik Bello (20) of Busuri.

Others, according to the Police spokesman, are Yahai Suleiman (30) of Busuri; Hudu Isah (30) of Kafinta; Haruna Yusuf (15) of Busuri; Sale Wasiri (50) of Busuri and Yahai Manini (40) of Busuri.

He, however, stated that two other corpses had yet to be identified, adding that effort was on to locate their families.

The PPRO, therefore, called on members of the public, whose relatives travelled on the two vehicles, to check at the FMC, Azare, for identification.