ABUJA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 people have been confirmed dead following a road accident near the Nigerian capital city of Abuja, the road safety police said on Monday.

The accident on late Sunday involved an overloaded 16-seater bus and a truck along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway, said Umar Ibrahim, head of the Federal Safety Road Corps.

Ten people were injured in the incident, Ibrahim said.

According to him, the bus, designed for only 16 passengers, was overloaded with 30 passengers when its driver suddenly lost control and rammed into a truck, some 22 kilometers to the Kaduna metropolis.

The road safety official said there was a high number of casualties "because the bus was extremely overloaded."

"The bus was not only overloaded with passengers but also choked with dismembered motorcycles belonging to the passengers," he said.