At least 42 migrant workers, including seven children, were killed after a bus in a northern region of South Africa left the road as it was driving over a steep mountain pass and plunged into a ravine.

According to traffic authorities, the crash occurred in Limpopo Province on Sunday night on the N1 highway about 250 miles north of Pretoria, the capital.

It added that an unknown number of injured people in the crash were taken to area hospitals.

Official photos showed an overturned bus with its roof crushed.

Most of those killed were Zimbabwean and Malawian migrant workers travelling back to their home countries.

In June, a bus carrying supporters of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters party home from a rally in Kwa-Zulu Natal crashed in Vryheid, 185 miles north of Durban, killing at least 12 people on board.