Ten persons were con-firmed dead,  while  10 others were critically injured in an auto crash  which occured in the early hours of yesterday on  the Darazo-Bauchi road.

The victims were members of a cultural troupe.

Haruna Bashir, Head of  Operations, FRSC Bauchi Sector Command, said that seven of the dead persons were burnt beyond recognition.

He said 10 occupants of  the 18-seater bus, with number plate Al-Bishir 2011,  in which the victims were travelling,  sustained various degrees of  injuries.

Bashir said the corpses had  been deposited in the mortuary of Abubakar Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, while those injured were responding to treatment.

He said the driver of the ill-fated bus tried to avoid an on coming Toyota Starlet car at a bend in Zungoro village and  plunged into a ditch.

Bashir, who blamed the accident on excessive  speed, said the bus carrying an electric generator and speakers, caught fire.

One Ibrahim Husseini said that he lost three  brothers he named as  Yelwa, Gabur and Yahaya as well as a 70-year-old father.

Husseini said the cultural troupe was hired by Alhaji Hassan Junga, a PDP House of Representatives aspirant for Patiskum/Nangere Constituency in Yobe.