(dpa) - Seven persons, including a mother and her two children, were killed in a traffic accident involving a bus and a passenger car Saturday in the Nigerian capital Abjua, officials said.
Ahmed Sule, an official of the Federal Road Safety Commission, said the accident occurred when a commuter bus - which was being chased by police - smashed into a car at an intersection.
Sule told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the commuter bus was being chased by the police for "jumping" traffic lights, some four kilometers to the scene of the accident.
"Rather than stopping to be questioned, he sped away and upon reaching the intersection where the accident occurred, the driver also disobeyed traffic signs and ran into the car coming from an adjacent direction," he said.
Sule said the bus killed the three occupants of the car instantly, while another three persons in the bus died on the spot. "A seventh person died upon reaching the hospital."
He added that nine other persons in the bus were critically injured and were being treated in two different hospitals.
Sule said the police van chasing the commuter bus driver sped away from the scene as soon as the accident occurred.
He blamed the accident on over-speeding and reckless actions by the police.