SAO PAULO, Dec 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - At least 38 people were killed in a bus crash in southeastern Brazil on Saturday, officials said, in what President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called a "terrible tragedy."

The accident in Minas Gerais state, involving a bus that caught fire in the collision, was the worst on Brazil's federal highways since 2007, the Federal Highway Police (PRF) told AFP.

Civil police confirmed 38 fatalities with nine people hospitalized.

According to preliminary information, a block of granite "possibly" came off a truck traveling in the opposite direction, hitting the bus, the PRF said in a statement.

The truck driver fled the scene, firefighters said.

Firefighters had initially said the bus blew a tire at around 4:00 am, causing the driver to lose control and hit a truck. Another vehicle also hit the bus from behind, officials said, but its occupants survived.

After the crash, the bus, which had been making its way from Sao Paulo to Vitoria da Conquista, in the northeastern Bahia state, caught fire. 

The death toll crept upward throughout the day, with a spokeswoman for the local fire department earlier telling AFP that "it was not yet possible to specify the exact number due to the state of the bodies."

Some of the victims had been trapped inside, said the fire department, which removed charred remains from the wreckage.

In a video released Saturday morning, Lieutenant Alonso Vieira Junior of the Minas Gerais fire department said a crane would be needed to clear the wreckage, and that "there are still more victims to be removed."

Among the dead were the bus driver and at least one child.

Lula took to social media to offer his prayers for "the recovery of the survivors of this terrible tragedy."

"I am deeply sorry," he said, offering condolences to the families of the victims.

The governor of Minas Gerais said he was working "so that the families of the victims are cared for, to deal with this tragedy in the most humane way possible."

At the end of November, a bus accident in Brazil's northeastern state of Alagoas left 17 dead when it plunged into a ravine while traveling on a remote mountain road.