Fifty-three people died yesterday when a bus collided with a fuel-laden van in Cameroon, causing a blaze that engulfed both vehicles, the local governor said.

"The dead have all been burned beyond identification," Awa Fonka Augustine, the governor of West Region, said.

Twenty-nine people suffered severe burns.

The 70-seat bus collided head-on with the van at around 3.30am at a location called the Cliff of Dschang, in central-western Cameroon, he said. The stretch of road is notorious for accidents, with hairpin bends and ravines.