Kapchorwa: The Resident District Commissioner for Kapchorwa, Bayole Stanley, has confirmed that 19 people died in Thursday's road accident involving a bus carrying pupils of King David Junior School Ndejje, revising earlier unconfirmed reports that had put the toll as high as 23.

Stanley said the dead comprised 18 pupils and one adult. He said the accident happened at around 8pm at Kaserem in Kapchorwa District, after the bus developed mechanical problems along the way.

The bus, registration number UA 108BQ, was ferrying the learners back to Kampala after they had toured Sipi Falls when the mechanical fault triggered the crash, according to Stanley.

New Light Paper had earlier reported that police and preliminary social media accounts placed the location of the crash at Chekwatit village, Kimawa Parish, Kawowo Sub-county, with fatalities feared to be as high as 23. The RDC's confirmation now supersedes those earlier figures and offers the clearest official account of the tragedy so far.

Several other pupils and crew members were injured and had been receiving treatment at Kapchorwa General Hospital before the RDC's confirmation.

The Uganda Police Force, through the Directorate of Traffic and Road Safety spokesperson Michael Kananura, had earlier acknowledged the crash on social media, saying emergency responders were at the scene establishing the number of casualties.

Investigations into the exact cause of the mechanical failure are ongoing, and authorities are yet to release the identities of the deceased.

This is an update to an earlier New Light Paper report on the accident.