INNOCENT ATUGANYIRA

MASINDI: A school bus belonging to Elite High School in Entebbe on Wednesday caught fire and burnt to ashes along Masindi – Hoima road.

The bus was ferrying students for a tour to Murchison Falls National Park.

The incident happened in Kiina Village Bikonzi Sub County Bujenje Constituency Masindi district. There were 50 students and 4 teachers on the bus.

Ssekawajji Charles, the deputy school head teacher says the students were heading to Murchison Falls National Park, then proceed to Butiaba landing site, Butiaba escarpment and then finalize at Budongo forest.

He explains that the incident occurred at around 11pm.

“The bus burnt to ashes because there was no fire extinguisher on the bus. It was a very unfortunate incident but good enough we didn’t register any causalities,” said Sekawaji.

Julius Atagwireho, an eyewitness told our reporter that he received a phone call from the school deputy head teacher at around 1am and rushed to the scene but they couldn’t set off the fire.

He says after receiving the call he organized another bus which transported the students for their tour.

By the time we filed this story, the wreckage of the bus was still at the scene being manned by an armed police officer. We couldn’t get a comment from the Albertine Region Police Spokesperson Julius Allan Hakiza since he didn’t respond to our repeated phone calls.