PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Mar 12 2017 – Thirty-four people were killed and 17 injured on Sunday when a bus slammed into a crowd in the city of Gonaives to the north of here.

The police report that the bus first hit two pedestrians, killing one.

The bus then ploughed into a band of street musicians, leaving dozens dead.

The injured were rushed to hospital by the emergency services.

According to a spokesman with the Minister of Interior, Albert Mouloin, following the incident in which the driver attempted to flee the scene, witnesses became hostile and tried to set the vehicle on fire.

“The people who were not victims of the accident tried to burn the bus with the passengers inside,” said Faustin Joseph, a civic protection co-coordinator for the Artibonite region.

“The bus, the passengers and the driver were all placed into the care of the local authorities”, he added.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident.

The bus was travelling from Cap Haitien to Port-au-Prince at the time of the incident.