Seventeen people died and dozens injured in a road crash at a remote community in Nigeria's northeastern state of Yobe, a state-run hospital said Tuesday.

The accident occurred on Monday, when a 57-seater bus collided with a moving truck in Dogon-Kukah, a community near the state capital Damaturu, said Mallam Isa Yusuf, head of the emergency unit at the state-run Damagum General Hospital.

"About 45 others were injured and are receiving treatment now," said the medical official, noting that children and nursing mothers were among the dead.

The luxury bus was conveying local people fleeing the neighboring Maiduguri city, capital of the northeastern Borno state, due to increasing Boko Haram attacks and fear of post- election violence.

A witness said the rear tyre of the luxury bus pulled out of its place while the vehicle was on high speed, causing it to ram into the moving truck which was coming from an opposite direction. Endi

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