At least 71 people have died in Ghana after a bus and a truck crashed in a head-on collision on Wednesday.

The crash, Ghana’s deadliest in years, occurred when a Metro Mass Transit coach was traveling north from the country’s second-largest city Kumasi to the northern town of Tamale, regional police chief Maxwell Atingane told Reuters. The bus collided with a cargo truck carrying boxes of tomatoes near the northern city of Kintampo, killing many passengers instantly. About 23 others were injured and are being treated at a local hospital, Atingane said.

Bismark Owusu Fosu, the medical director of Kintampo government hospital where many of the victims were taken, told the BBC that 58 people were dead on arrival, 10 died after admission and three died in a nearby hospital.

Initial accounts pointed to a mechanical failure on the bus, Atingane said, adding that the police were investigating. Newsweek contacted Metro Mass Transit for a comment but no one was available to respond immediately.

Ghanaian President, John Mahama, sent a tweet of condolences to families affected by the crash, while the leader of opposition New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, said he was praying for the recovery of those injured. (Newsweek)

•Photo shows Ghanaian President John Mahama.