Twenty children were killed Friday in South Africa when their school bus crashed into a truck and burst into flames.

The impact caused the bus to explode into a ball of fire in the Mpumalanga province, which is north of the capital Pretoria.

Many of the children were trapped inside the bus and declared dead at the scene. Other kids were injured and dragged away from the wreck by people at the scene.

“It is confirmed 20 children have been killed,” said Russel Meiring, a spokesman for emergency service ER24. “Paramedics arrived on the scene to find the fire services already in attendance. The fire services had already extinguished the burning vehicle, which was found lying on its side.”

ER24 said some of the children were transported to area hospitals.

The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known.

With Post Wires