By ARNALDO VIEIRA

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LUANDA

At least 21 people were killed and 30 injured in Mozambique’s capital Maputo on Sunday when a car ploughed into people at a party, local media confirmed.

The O Pais newspaper quoted a police officer, Mr Paulo Langa, saying the accident happened at Luís Cabral region.

PARTY

A motorist lost control of the vehicle and ploughed into a crowd of young people at a party.

“The vehicle was completely destroyed after ramming several obstacles,” the O Pais quoted Mr Langa as saying.

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“The cause of the accident that took place at about 2am local time remains unknown, but eyewitnesses said the driver was fleeing after being flagged down by police,” the paper quoted a witness saying.

“Reportedly, the driver was drunk.”

ACCIDENTS

The burden of motor vehicle accidents is reportedly increasing in Mozambique, with at least three people killed daily.

The age group most affected is 25-38 years (39.35 per cent), followed by 16-24 years (20.79 percent). </s> Radio Mocambique said the vehicle was travelling at high speed when it hit the crowd early on Sunday in Maputo.

A senior police official said the driver of the vehicle ignored a police order to stop just before hitting the party-goers beside a pedestrian bridge on a main road.

The official said the driver died in the collision. </s> The accident occurred at National Road N4 in Luis Cabral neighborhood, the Club of Mozambique media outlet reported. The vehicle hit a group of people, who participated in a carnival party.

The injured people were reportedly sent to nearby hospitals.

The causes of the incident remain unknown but eyewitnesses do not rule out the possibility that the car's driver was drunk and tried to escape the police. </s> At least 21 killed, 31 injured in Mozambique car ramming incident

A car skidded off a road and ploughed into a crowd of young people in Mozambique on Sunday, killing 21 and injuring 30 people, Sputnik reported citing the Club of Mozambique.

The accident occurred at National Road N4 in Luis Cabral neighborhood, the Club of Mozambique media outlet reported. The vehicle hit a group of people, who participated in a carnival party.

The injured people were reportedly sent to nearby hospitals. </s> An infant was killed when motorist who says he lost control of his car drove into the crowded seaside boardwalk along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday evening. At least 15 others were injured and taken to local hospitals.

RIO DE JANEIRO — An infant was killed when motorist who says he lost control of his car drove into the crowded seaside boardwalk along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday evening. At least 15 others were injured and taken to local hospitals.

Brazilian military police said in an e-mailed statement there was no indication that the incident was a terrorist attack. Several European and American cities have seen terrorist attacks in which drivers plowed into crowds.

Police have arrested the driver, who told them he had not been drinking but had lost control of his car. He also said that he suffered from epilepsy, according to the police statement.

The boardwalk along Copacabana beach was crowded with people on the hot summer night when the car jumped the curb.

A witness reported seeing at least one child among the injured, many of whom were knocked down and were treated initially where they lay on the ground. The car stopped in the sand after it apparently crossed the wide sidewalk that runs between the beach and a busy road. </s> JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Mozambique’s president on Friday pledged support for the families of dozens of people, including children, who were killed when a fuel tanker exploded in northern Mozambique.

President Filipe Nyusi said “tragedy has knocked on our door once again” in Tete province, where the accident happened Thursday. Nyusi was recalling a 2015 incident in Tete in which about 70 people died after drinking contaminated beer.

Radio Mozambique initially said 73 people died in the tanker explosion on Thursday, though the Portuguese news agency Lusa, citing government data, said on Friday that 56 had been confirmed killed and that another 108 were injured.

There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

The justice ministry will head a commission to investigate the accident, Lusa reported. It said a government task force planned to head on Friday to the scene.

Aid efforts must be “flexible” following the tanker fire in the town of Caphiridzange, Nyusi said at a meeting in Maputo, the Mozambican capital.

The explosion happened after residents gathered around the tanker to get fuel, according to media reports. There were conflicting reports about how the accident happened — Mozambican media initially said the tanker driver was selling the fuel to residents, but another report indicated that residents were trying to get fuel out of the truck by themselves. </s> A car ploughed into pedestrians on the Copacabana Beach in Brazil on Thursday night, leaving at least 15 people injured and an eight-month-old baby killed. The 41-year-old driver is believed to have had suffered a seizure at the wheel.

At 8:45 p.m. local time, a man driving a Hyundai I30 slammed into the passersby and pedestrians next to the world-famous Rio de Janeiro beach. Witnesses said the car stopped in the sand after apparently crossing the wide sidewalk between the beach and a road. The injured were tended to as fire-fighters arrived on the scene. They were then transported to a hospital nearby.

Earlier reports claimed at least 15 people, including four children, were injured. According to Mirror, a fire department official later confirmed that an eight-month-old baby was killed in the incident.

The driver’s name was confirmed by authorities to be Antonio de Almeida Anaquim. He was held at the scene and taken to the hospital where he has undergone blood alcohols tests. Local reports suggest that he may have had suffered a seizure at the wheel, forcing him to lose control of the vehicle. Apparently, an anti-epilepsy medication was found inside his vehicle.

Beachgoers who witnessed the crash beat the driver until they were stopped by police, according to local news Globo1 (via the Daily Mail). Anaquim reportedly had a suspended licence for accumulating 62 infraction points and 14 fines for the past five years.

Police have stressed that the incident was not terror-related. They are instead treating it as a “serious accident.” </s> Seven killed in Mozambique IS attack

MAPUTO: Seven people including a policeman were killed in northern Mozambique this week in a militant attack claimed by the Islamic State group, local sources said Saturday.

The attack on Wednesday evening occurred in Lidjungo village in the Nangade district, a local source based in Mozambique´s northern Cabo Delgado province told AFP. One policeman and six civilians were killed in the attack, including two children.

Islamist fighters have targeted remote communities in the gas-rich, Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado province since October 2017, killing more than 250 people and forcing thousands from their homes despite a heavy police and military presence in the area that borders Tanzania. According to SITE Intelligence, which monitors militant activity, Islamic State issued a statement late on Friday claiming involvement in the Wednesday attack. This is its second IS claim for an attack in Mozambique, targeting the volatile northern region. </s> MAPUTO At least 73 people were killed and scores injured in Mozambique on Thursday as they tried to siphon fuel from an overturned truck which exploded, the government said.

The truck was transporting fuel to Malawi from the port city of Beira and was near the border when the accident occurred, the government said in a statement.

The injured had been taken to hospital and a government team was due to travel to the area in Tete province, some 2,000 km (1,242 miles) from the capital Maputo on Friday.

Mozambique is one of the world's poorest countries and struggles constantly with food shortages caused by drought.

(Reporting by Manuel Mucari; Writing by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Louise Ireland)
A suspected drunk driver loses control while fleeing police in Maputo, Mozambique, strikes a crowd, and kills 21 people, injuring 30 more.