At least 26 people died in the Saturday morning motor accident that occurred at the Ibadan end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Oyo State Police Command said.

Confirming the tragedy, the command’s public relations officer, Kunle Ajisebutu, said 11 others including three children sustained severe injuries.

Mr. Ajisebutu said witnesses reported that two commercial buses had a head-on-collision with the vehicles immediately bursting into flames claiming 26 lives

    “Corpses of the dead have been deposited at Adeoyo General Hospital, Yemetu, while the injured were taken to the Ibadan Central Hospital, and the University College Hospital, (UCH) Ibadan for medical attention.

    “Police investigation has begun.

    “The victims were evacuated by a combined team of police men from the Toll Gate Police Division and men of the FRSC.

    “The Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, visited the scene immediately,” he said.

A witness had earlier said that more than 36 people were feared dead following the accident at a Quarry site at Km 96, on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

However, another eyewitness disclosed that all the passengers in the two buses were burnt beyond recognition.

    “Only a baby escaped death because the father of the child threw him out through the window of the bus,’’ the witness told the News Agency of Nigeria,” the source who was not named said.