Nairobi - Thirty people were killed and 16 injured early on Sunday morning in a head-on collision between a bus and a lorry on a road in central Kenya, police said.

"We have 30 dead," said Rift Valley traffic police chief Zero Arome of the 03:00 (00.00 GMT) accident close to Nakuru town. "All the bodies have been removed from the wreckage and injured people taken to hospital."

The accident occurred close to a notorious stretch on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway when a bus travelling from Busia, in western Kenya, collided with a truck coming from Nakuru. Police said the death toll for that stretch of road has now reached 100 this month alone.

Arome said the drivers of both vehicles were among the dead, as well as a three-year-old child, while the injured had been taken to a Nakuru hospital.

One survivor, speaking from his hospital bed, said he had been asleep at the back of the bus when the collision happened.

"All I heard was a loud bang and screams from all over," he said. "I was seated at the back and was helped out after some time because my legs were stuck. It is by the grace of God that I am alive. I saw many people dead and their bodies mutilated."

Official statistics show that around 3 000 people die annually in road accidents in Kenya.