WINDHOEK, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people were killed early Saturday in a head-on collision on the B1 highway near Mariental in Namibia's Hardap Region, some 270 km south of Windhoek, the country's capital, police have confirmed.
John Mwatongela, Hardap police deputy commissioner and head of the Crime Investigations Division, said the accident involved a police van and a Namibian Correctional Service facility van.
According to Mwatongela, the police vehicle was carrying six passengers, including five officers and a civilian, while the correctional service vehicle had 13 occupants. Eleven correctional service officers, one police officer, and two civilians died in the crash, with three others critically injured.
In a statement, Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah expressed "profound sadness" at the tragedy, saying her "heart goes out to the families who have lost their loved ones and to the men and women of the Namibia Correctional Service and the Namibian Police Force who are mourning their colleagues."
The president also extended prayers for the recovery of the three critically injured. ■