The age at which you can get a free bus pass can differ greatly depending on where you are based
Brits could secure free bus travel depending on eligiblity(Image: Getty Images)
People across the nation could be in line for additional assistance with their travel expenses, including a bus pass offering free or discounted journeys on local bus services. No matter where you reside in the UK, there is a plethora of schemes designed to make public transport more wallet-friendly, though not everyone will qualify.
Eligibility can vary greatly depending on your location within the UK. For instance, the age at which you can receive a free bus pass can differ significantly if you are located in England, Scotland, or Wales.
Most of the complimentary bus passes nationwide are primarily reserved for the elderly, especially after the government confirmed it will abandon a proposed trial of free bus passes for anyone under 22 in England. As per a BBC report, the government stated that there were no funds available to support the scheme during the current spending review period, which runs until 2028/29.
Continue reading for a comprehensive overview of all the available assistance.
England
In England, pensioners become eligible for a free bus pass when they hit the state pension age of 66, which applies to both men and women. So, if you were born in 1959, you will be able to get your hands on the free bus pass this year.
You can apply for this scheme through your local council under the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme, although the actual name of the bus pass may change depending on where you live.
When applying, you might be asked to provide a passport-style photo as well as a document proving your age and address. However, there is one city in England that has slightly different rules.
Free travel on buses, tubes and other transport is available from the age of 60, but this is only within London. This can be accessed via the 60+ London Oyster photocard which also allows you to get free transport on Transport for London services anytime Monday to Friday, except between 4.30am and 9am.
Further details of free bus travel in England can be found here.
Scotland
In Scotland, once you hit 60, you can get your hands on a National Entitlement Card which gives you free bus travel all over Scotland. However, bear in mind that this Scottish concessionary travel only applies to registered local and long-distance bus services.
So, certain premium-fare services, tours, excursions and group hire services aren’t part of the deal. If you are also between the age of five and 21, you may also be eligible for a National Entitlement Card (NEC) which allows you to access the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme.
Further details on free bus travel for older people in Scotland can be found here.. Meanwhile, further details on free bus travel for younger people in Scotland can be found here.
Wales
Within Wales, you may be able to get free travel on buses if you are disabled, aged 60 or over, or an injured service personnel which you can apply for through Transport for Wales. While not free, people aged between 16 and 21 caaan apply for a MyTravelPass which allows them to get up to a third off the cost of bus travel in many circumstances.
Further details of this in Wales can be found here.
Two buses travelling in opposite directions on the Kampala-Gulu Highway collided head-on while overtaking.
Published On 22 Oct 202522 Oct 2025
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At least 63 people have been killed in a major road accident involving multiple vehicles on the highway between Uganda’s capital Kampala and the northern city of Gulu, police have said.
The collision took place just after midnight [21:00 GMT on Tuesday] and was caused by two buses coming from opposite directions trying to overtake a truck and a car.
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“In the process, both buses met head-on during the overtaking manoeuvres,” the Uganda Police Force said in a statement on X. “Sixty-three people lost lives, all occupants from involved vehicles.”
The police added that “as investigations continue, we strongly urge all motorists to exercise maximum caution on the roads, especially avoiding dangerous and careless overtaking, which remains one of the leading causes of crashes in the country”.
Those travelling in the truck and the car were injured and taken to Kiryandongo Hospital and other nearby medical facilities, the statement said. It did not give further details on the number injured or the extent of their wounds.
The Kampala-Gulu Highway is one of Uganda’s busiest as it connects the capital with the biggest town in northern Uganda.
The bus, travelling from the Eastern Cape to Zimbabwe and Malawi, tumbled down a steep embankment.
Published On 13 Oct 202513 Oct 2025
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A bus has crashed in a mountainous region in the north of South Africa, killing at least 42 people.
The vehicle veered off a steep mountain road on the N1 highway near the town of Makhado in Limpopo province on Sunday evening, before tumbling down an embankment and landing upside down.
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The vehicle was travelling from Gqeberha in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province to Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Emergency crews worked through the night to pull victims from the wreckage and transport survivors to nearby hospitals.
More than 30 injured passengers received medical treatment. Authorities said some people may still be trapped inside the overturned bus.
According to public broadcaster SABC, the dead included 18 women, 17 men and seven children.
A 10-month-old baby was among the victims, Violet Mathy, a transport official for the Limpopo province, told Newzroom Afrika.
The road, a major highway connecting South Africa to Zimbabwe, remained closed in both directions on Monday as rescue operations continued.
Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba visited the crash site before meeting survivors in hospital.
“Losing so many lives in one incident is painful beyond words,” she said, offering condolences to families in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Authorities are investigating what caused the driver to lose control, with initial assessments pointing to possible fatigue or mechanical failure as potential factors.
The provincial government is providing counselling support to survivors while working with diplomatic missions from Zimbabwe and Malawi to assist bereaved families.
South Africa’s roads are among the most dangerous in the world, with thousands of people dying in crashes each year.
Long-distance buses carrying migrant workers between countries in Southern Africa are frequently involved in serious accidents on the region’s highways.
The wide Exe estuary glides past the window. Leaning back in my seat, I watch birds on the mudflats: swans, gulls, oystercatchers and scampering red-legged turnstones. Worn down by a busy, admin-heavy summer, I’m taking the train through Devon for a peaceful break that hasn’t needed too much planning.
Exmouth is a compact, walkable seaside town, easily reached by train on the scenic Avocet Line from Exeter. No need for stressful motorway driving and, once you’re there, everything is on tap: beaches, hotels, pubs, shops and cafes, alongside gentle green spaces and ever-changing seascapes.
Exmouth’s art deco-style seafront Premier Inn is 10 minutes’ stroll from the station, through flower-filled squares and gardens, and will store bags if you turn up early. A decade of sea air has battered the building’s exterior, but the restaurant’s floor-to-ceiling windows mean breakfast comes with a view of the sea and dune-backed estuary. The open-top 95 bus to Sandy Bay stops almost outside.
I drop my luggage and wander the few steps down to Exmouth beach. The soft tawny sand is crisscrossed with gull footprints. It’s a warm day and I get in the water straight away. The temperature is perfect, though I feel a strong current. I keep close to shore, looking out at the neogothic tower of Holy Trinity church and the seafront’s big wheel.
Lunch at the River Exe Café. Photograph: Ed Schofield/The Observer
Afterwards, a walk around town morphs into a cafe crawl. Lured by the smell of baking scones, I start with a mug of tea outside Bumble and Bee in Manor Gardens, with its begonia baskets. Nearby, along a wide path with a waterwheel, lily pond and magnolias, a baby T rex and protoceratops are hatching out of reptilian eggs.
They are part of Exmouth’s Dinosaur Safari, featuring 17 life-sized models that were unveiled in 2016. The town’s striking fossil-rich red sandstone cliffs are part of the Jurassic Coast, which has been feted by palaeontologists for centuries.
The smell of fresh bread wafts from several bakeries and bacon is being fried at the butcher and deli Lloyd Maunder. In a former stables and cottage nearby, the volunteer-run Exmouth Museum is one of those packed and atmospheric troves of musty local stuff: clay pipes, Edwardian capes, butter pats, bramble scythes.
Near the marina, the fishmonger is shelling whelks outside Fish on the Quay. “Best whelks in town. We cook them ourselves,” he tells me.
“Only whelks in town,” laughs his colleague. I chew some by the water’s edge before heading to Land and Sea for grilled mackerel with pickled samphire.
Just being here is a tonic, slowly exploring the flower-hung gardens and two-mile long beach. I stop for a while at a free afternoon concert outside Exmouth Pavilion and doze off in a deckchair among palms and pale Michaelmas daisies. I wake sufficiently rested to visit the National Trust’s A la Ronde, a 16-sided house on the edge of the town, designed by cousins Jane and Mary Parminter in the mid-1790s. The 57 bus takes just a few minutes to drop me at Courtlands Cross, close to the house with its oak-framed views of the Exe.
A la Ronde is an 18th-century, 16-sided cottage full of souvenirs and decorative fantasies. Photograph: Hugh Williamson/Alamy
A la Ronde is stuffed with souvenirs and decorative fantasies: a seashell-covered gallery that took 10 years to create, an ornate frieze made from feathers, walls full of sketches and silhouettes. There is a secondhand bookshop and the gardens offer playful diversions: croquet on the lawn, shell-themed board games on the orchard tables and a sign that says “Lie down. Look up at the clouds”.
I decide to walk the couple of miles back to town. A signed path leads down through meadows to the Exe Estuary Trail, a popular cycle ride with tunnels of butterfly-magnet buddleia and a maritime smell of stranded seaweed. “Tea garden open” says a chalkboard by the path at Lower Halsdon Farm. The scones are warm and come with clotted cream from Langage Farm near Plymouth. I notice how quiet it is. Four times an hour, trains hoot and hurtle past on the waterside railway. Otherwise, there’s little sound save the plaintive cries of seabirds on the sandbanks and susurrating poplars overhead.
Next morning starts with a radiant early dip in gold-lit water and a short seaward stroll to buzzing Heydays and the neighbouring Hangtime beach cafe, which serves bowls of granola heaped with berries and bananas, and bagels full of rocket, chilli jam and halloumi. A few steps inland, I cross the Maer nature reserve. It’s a big, sandy, grassy area, sprouting clumps of silvery sea holly and yellow cups of evening primrose. There’s a long-necked brachiosaurus on the far side of the field (that dino safari again). I sit nearby, in the low branches of an evergreen holm oak, and listen to a chiffchaff singing overhead. Heading through parks and well-signed leafy pathways, there are flowers everywhere, from clifftop agapanthus to a bank of pink cyclamen under a sycamore.
The ride to south Devon is highly scenic. Here, a train crosses the River Clyst at Topsham
For a long, relaxing lunch I head to the River Exe Café, a floating restaurant in the middle of the estuary, reachable only by boat (I take the bespoke hourly ferry from Exmouth Marina). Surrounded by gently rocking waves, I eat sea bream with capers and buttery new potatoes. The cafe is only open from April until the end of September and there’s a waiting list for reservations, but you can get lucky – as I did – with occasional cancellations.
Cormorants stand guard on a wrecked boat nearby. Local poet Jennifer Keevill compares them to “menacing dinner guests, all in black”. Her poems evoke Exmouth’s waterscapes: seabirds, sunsets, crumbling cliffs, kite surfers, Christmas Day swimmers. I head back to the beach for an evening dip and supper in the Premier Inn’s own restaurant. I’d usually look for somewhere more distinctive, but I’m tired and it’s right here. The hotel’s seafront terrace, with tubs of lavender and French marigolds, turns out to be a good place to watch the sun set over the sea and eat plates of inexpensive pub-style grub.
Next day, inspired by Keevill’s poem Ferry to the Other Side, I take the seasonal boat across to Starcross (April-end of October) and walk a circuit past the brackeny deer park at Powderham Castle, up through groves of sweet chestnuts and down past marshes full of water mint and warblers. From the ferry, there are distant views of Exmouth and its “landmark buildings / a clock tower, a cafe, a row of old houses”. Back on the east bank, I stop at Land and Sea for a valedictory half of malty Otter Ale and then a crisp beer from Teignworthy brewery on the glass-walled balcony of The Grove. Looking out across the sunlit water, I feel any trace of tension slip away.
It’s my last evening and I’m loath to leave. Local resident Geoff Crawford is enthusiastic about Exmouth: “I’ve lived here 14 years. Travelled the world all my life … and I love this place more than anywhere else.” He suggests more eateries to sample: “hidden gem” La Mar, a bistro above the Beach pub, and tiny backstreet Loluli’s Fire and Fish, “a take away cooked-over-coals fish shop”.
An easy escape and seafood-lover’s paradise, Exmouth is a restful place to decompress beside the water. There are walks, boats and buses on the doorstep if you need them, but it’s also ideal for just being. Sit back, relax and watch the sun set.
This trip was supported by GWRand Premier Inn (rooms from about £50 a night). More information from Visit Exmouth
Disasters are real — also, these days, frighteningly common, be they epic confluences of nature and negligence or the murderous and preventable kind. And when it comes to disaster movies, it’s hard to know what the acceptable level of exploitation is.
Of course, director Paul Greengrass could never be confused with the unseriousness of producer Irwin Allen (“The Towering Inferno”) or filmmaker Roland Emmerich (“The Day After Tomorrow”), ringmasters who preferred heaping helpings of A-listers on slick, expensive calamities. Rather, when Greengrass, coming from documentaries, tackles dark days of mass casualty, they tend to be true stories like “United 93” and “Bloody Sunday.” His stripped-down, jagged style, absent marquee names and focused on such issues as terrorism and community, brings intelligent urgency to the unfathomable.
With his new film “The Lost Bus,” however, starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera, about the real-life effort to save a busload of schoolchildren from the 2018 Camp fire, a wildfire that would destroy most of Paradise, Calif., Greengrass is trying to merge the two sensibilities. This time he mixes star heroism with you-are-there spectacle and the results can be galvanizing if awkwardly framed.
“The Lost Bus” is not as potent as Greengrass’ “Captain Phillips,” in which Tom Hanks anchored a re-created reality no less pulse-pounding than any action blockbuster. Instead the director seems to be in a programmatic mode. There are scenes of nerve-jangling terror that weld you to your seat, but they’re sandwiched in between a lot that feels very much sculpted for three-act character arc effect by Greengrass and co-writer Brad Ingelsby.
McConaughey plays Paradise bus driver Kevin McKay, whose life is almost comically scripted to come off as especially challenged before one lick of flame gets near it: strapped for cash, dying dog, recently dead father (no love lost), sullen teenage son (love lost), ex-wife (also unhappy) and a memory-ailing mother. But on the afternoon of Nov. 18 as the fires reach eastern Paradise, Kevin’s is the only bus that can meet a request from his dispatcher (Ashlie Atkinson): Pick up stranded elementary schoolkids and evacuate them to safety.
A failed dad feeling the weight of sudden responsibility, Kevin corrals as co-chaperone a schoolteacher (America Ferrera). Though Mary is a mother eager to get to her own child, she’s willing to help. The occasional cut to Yul Vazquez as the fire chief spearheading rescue efforts, however, is this movie’s barometer of increasingly bad news. As smoke quickly darkens the day and the unstoppable, town-hopping fire hems in the bus, cutting off routes, the journey takes a dystopian turn, raising the stakes and alarm levels to unimaginable heights. (Eaton and Palisades survivors, fair warning — you were never going to watch this anyway.)
McConaughey is solid casting, his unshowy working-class fortitude slightly tinged with fear. In his and Ferrera’s sturdy presence and in the serrated frenzy of Greengrass’ editing style, a shorter, tighter “The Lost Bus” would still hold plenty of dread and dramatic resilience. The fire sequences alone, captured in the hellish fuzz of Pål Ulvik Rokseth’s cinematography, are pinnacles of this practical-meets-digital-effects discipline. But Kevin’s dippy redemption arc, doled out midperil in tortured glances and forced dialogue, drags us out of the intensity.
It’s also odd that the activist-minded Greengrass didn’t do more with so corporate a villain: legally responsible utility PG&E, represented in the movie by an ineffectual suit who is briefly yelled at. Forget that redemption story — Greengrass could have leaned even more into those action tropes and, as a final touch, had McConaughey punch PG&E in the jaw.
‘The Lost Bus’
Rated: R, for language
Running time: 2 hours, 9 minutes
Playing: In limited release Friday, Sept. 19; on Apple TV+ on Oct. 3
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Watch: Charles Mwesigwa – known locally as Abbey – says his women are “open-minded”
Warning: Contains disturbing content and graphic descriptions of sexual acts
A man running a sex ring operating out of Dubai’s most glamorous neighbourhoods, and exploiting vulnerable women, has been identified by a BBC investigation.
Charles Mwesigwa, who says he is a former London bus driver, told our undercover reporter he could provide women for a sex party at a starting price of $1,000 (£740), adding that many can do “pretty much everything” clients want them to.
Rumours of wild sex parties in the UAE emirate have circulated for years. The hashtag #Dubaiportapotty, which has been viewed more than 450 million times on TikTok, links to parodies and speculative exposés of women accused of being money-hungry influencers secretly funding their lifestyles by fulfilling the most excessive of sexual requests.
Our BBC World Service investigation was told the reality is even darker.
Young Ugandan women told us they had not expected to have to undertake sex work for Mr Mwesigwa. In some cases, they believed they were travelling to the UAE to work in places like supermarkets or hotels.
At least one of Mr Mwesigwa’s clients regularly asks to defecate on the women, according to “Mia”, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, and who says she was trapped by Mr Mwesigwa’s network.
Mr Mwesigwa denies the allegations. He says he helps women find accommodation through landlords, and that women follow him to parties because of his wealthy Dubai contacts.
We have also discovered that two women linked to Mr Mwesigwa have died, having fallen from high-rise apartments. Although their deaths were ruled as suicides, their friends and family feel the police should have investigated further.
Mr Mwesigwa said the incidents were investigated by the Dubai police and asked us to contact them for information. They did not reply to our request.
One of the women who lost her life, Monic Karungi, arrived in Dubai from western Uganda.
She found herself sharing a flat with dozens of other women working for Mr Mwesigwa, according to one of the women, who we are calling Keira, who says she lived with Monic there in 2022.
“[His] place was like a market… There were like 50 girls. She was not happy because what she expected is not what she got,” Keira told us.
Monic thought the job in Dubai was going to be in a supermarket, according to her sister Rita.
“He [Mr Mwesigwa] was violent when I told him I wanted to go back home,” says Mia, who also knew Monic in Dubai. She says that, when she first arrived, he told her she already owed him £2,000 ($2,711) and that within two weeks that debt had doubled.
“Money for air tickets, for your visa, for where you’re sleeping, food,” says Mia.
“That means you have to work hard, hard, hard, pleading for men to come and sleep [with] you.”
Monic owed Mr Mwesigwa more than $27,000 (£19,918) after several weeks, according to what a relative of hers we are calling Michael says she told him. He adds that he received tearful voice notes from her.
Family handout
Monic grew up with 10 siblings in rural Uganda
Mia told us that clients were mostly white Europeans, and included men with extreme fetishes.
“There’s this one client, he poops on girls. He poops and he tells them to eat the shit,” she explained quietly.
Another woman we are calling Lexi, who says she was tricked by a different network, echoed Mia’s story, saying “porta potty” requests were frequent.
“There was a client who said: ‘We pay you 15,000 Arab Emirates Dirham ($4,084, £3,013) to gang-rape you, pee in your face, beat you, and add in 5,000 ($1,361, £1,004)'” for being recorded eating faeces.
Her experiences have led her to believe there is a racial element to this extreme fetish.
“Every time I said that I wouldn’t want to do that, it seemed to get them more interested. They want somebody who is going to cry and scream and run. And that somebody [in their eyes] should be a black person.”
Lexi says she tried to get help from the only people she thought could intervene – the police. But she says they told her: “You Africans cause problems for each other. We don’t want to get involved. And they would hang up.”
We put this allegation to the Dubai police and they did not reply.
Lexi eventually escaped back to Uganda and now helps to rescue and support women in similar situations.
Warsan Tower in Dubai, from which Monic Karungi fell in May 2022
Finding Charles Mwesigwa wasn’t easy. We could only find one picture of him online – and it was taken from behind. He also uses multiple names across social media.
But through a combination of open-source intelligence, undercover research, and information from a former member of his network, we traced him to a middle class neighbourhood in Dubai – Jumeirah Village Circle.
To corroborate what sources had told us about his business – supplying women for degrading sex acts – we sent in an undercover reporter posing as an event organiser sourcing women for high-end parties.
Mr Mwesigwa appeared calm and confident when speaking about his business.
Mr Mwesigwa showed us his UK driving licence and said he was a former London bus driver
“We’ve got like 25 girls,” he said. “Many are open-minded… they can do pretty much everything.”
He explained the cost – from $1,000 (£738) per girl per night, but more for “crazy stuff”. He invited our reporter for a “sample night”.
When asked about “Dubai porta potty” he replied: “I’ve told you, they are open-minded. When I say open-minded… I will send you the craziest I have.”
In the course of the conversation, Mr Mwesigwa said he used to be a London bus driver. We have seen evidence he put that occupation down on an official document in east London in 2006.
He went on to tell our reporter that he loved this business.
“I could win the lottery, a million pounds, but I would still do it… it’s become part of me.”
Troy, a man who says he used to act as operations manager for Mr Mwesigwa’s network, gave us more information about how he says it is run.
Troy says he used to work as a driver and then an operations manager for Charles Mwesigwa
He says Mr Mwesigwa pays off security at various nightclubs so they will let his women in to find clients.
“I’ve heard about types of sex that I’ve never seen in my life. It doesn’t matter what you go through as long as his rich men are happy… [the women] have no escape route…They see musicians, they see footballers, they see presidents.”
Mr Mwesigwa has been able to get away with running this operation, Troy claims, because Troy and others are not just used as drivers. He says their names are also used by Mr Mwesigwa to hire cars and apartments, so that his own name never appears on the paperwork.
On 27 April 2022, Monic posted a selfie from Al Barsha – a residential neighbourhood popular with expats in Dubai. Four days later, she was dead. She had been in the emirate for just four months.
According to Mia, Monic and Mr Mwesigwa had been regularly arguing in the period before she left. Mia says Monic had been refusing to comply with Mr Mwesigwa’s demands and had found a way out of his network.
“She had got some kind of job. She was very excited. She thought she was gonna get free, she was going to get her life back because now that was a real job, no sleeping with men,” Mia says.
Monic moved out to a different apartment about 10 minutes’ walk away. It was from this apartment’s balcony that she fell on 1 May 2022.
Instagram
The final selfie Monic posted before she died
Monic’s relative Michael, who was in the UAE at the time she died, says he tried to get answers.
Police told him they stopped their investigation, having found drugs and alcohol in the apartment Monic had fallen from, and only her fingerprints on the balcony, he says.
He obtained a death certificate for Monic from a hospital, but it did not say how she had died. And her family were unable to obtain a toxicology report for her.
But a Ghanaian man living in the apartment building was more helpful, he says, taking him to another block to meet the man he said was Monic’s boss.
Michael describes the scene when he got there and saw where the women were housed.
He says through the cloud of shisha smoke in the living room, he made out what looked like cocaine on the table and women having sex on chairs with clients.
He claims he found the man we had previously identified as Charles Mwesigwa in bed with two women, and that when he tried to drag him to the police Mr Mwesigwa replied: “I have spent 25 years in Dubai. Dubai is mine… There is no way you are going to report me… Embassy is me, I’m the embassy.
“[Monic’s] not the first to die. And she won’t be the last,” he added, according to Michael.
Mia and Keira both independently say they witnessed this conversation and both confirm its wording. When we asked Mr Mwesigwa what he meant by this, he denied having said it.
Monic’s death shares haunting similarities with that of Kayla Birungi, another Ugandan woman who lived in the same neighbourhood as her, and died in 2021 after falling from a Dubai high-rise apartment which we have evidence to suggest was managed by Charles Mwesigwa.
The phone number for her landlord, shared with us by Kayla’s family, turned out to be one of Mr Mwesigwa’s numbers. Troy also confirms that Mr Mwesigwa managed the apartment, as do four other women we spoke to for this investigation.
Instagram
Kayla Birungi, another Ugandan, also died after falling from a Dubai high-rise building
Kayla’s relatives say that they – like Monic’s family – heard Kayla’s death had been linked to alcohol and drugs. But a toxicology report seen by the BBC shows none were present in her system at the time of her death.
While Kayla’s family was able to repatriate her body and hold a burial, Monic’s remains were never returned.
Our investigation found she was likely buried in a section of Dubai’s Al Qusais Cemetery known as “The Unknown”. It features rows and rows of unmarked graves, typically thought to belong to migrants whose family couldn’t repatriate their bodies.
Monic and Kayla were part of a wider, unofficial pipeline connecting Uganda to the Gulf.
As Uganda wrestles with rising youth unemployment, moving to work abroad – mainly in the Gulf states – has become a huge industry that contributes $1.2bn (£885m) of tax revenue to the country each year.
But these opportunities can carry a risk.
Mariam Mwiza, a Ugandan activist against exploitation, says she has helped rescue more than 700 people from around the Gulf.
“We get cases of people who have been promised to work, let’s say, in a supermarket. Then [that person] ends up sold as a prostitute,” she told us.
Monic’s family in rural Uganda say Monic always had the ambition to seek a better life
For Monic’s family, grief is now tangled with fear. Fear for other families who could suffer the same loss they have, if nothing is done.
“We are all looking at Monica’s death,” her relative Michael told us. “But who is there for the girls still alive? They’re still there. Still suffering.”
The BBC asked Charles “Abbey” Mwesigwa to respond to all the allegations made in our investigation. He denied running an illegal prostitution ring.
He said: “These are all false allegations.
“I told you I am just a party person who invites big spenders on my tables, hence making many girls flock [to] my table. That makes me know many girls and that’s it.”
He also said: “[Monic] died with her passport meaning no-one was demanding her money for taking her. Prior to her death, I hadn’t seen her for over four to five weeks.
“I knew [Monic and Kayla] and [they] were renting with different landlords. If no-one in both flats was arrested or any of the landlords, then there was a reason. Both incidents were investigated by the Dubai police and maybe they can help you.”
The BBC contacted Al Barsha Police Station to request to see the case files for Monic Karungi and Kayla Birungi. It did not respond to that request or to allegations Monica and Kayla’s deaths had not been properly investigated.
The BBC was unable to see any toxicology reports in relation to Monic Karungi, or speak to the landlord of the apartment in which she was living when she died.
If you have any information to add to this investigation please contact [email protected]
Details of organisations offering information about or support after sexual abuse or with feelings of despair are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
THIS is the shocking moment a train slams into a double decker bus in Mexico – leaving ten dead and dozens injured.
A speeding freight train T-boned a coach full of people at a grade crossing in Atlacomulco, 80 miles northwest of Mexico City.
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The bus was waiting at a grade crossing in Atlacomulco, central MexicoCredit: x/@MeganoticiasTol
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It drives forward onto the track and a train smashes into itCredit: x/@MeganoticiasTol
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Seen from other side, the front half of the bus came to over the roadCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Footage shows the bus in a line of traffic on the Maravatío-Atlacomulco highway.
Cars in either direction have stopped at the train tracks – though a motorbike scoots across at the last moment.
The bus, from company Herradura de Plata, is at first stationary at the front of the queue.
But then it suddenly decides to move forward, as if trying to reach the other side before the train passes.
Just as it reaches the middle of the tracks, the train ploughs into the centre of the coach.
The entire bus folds and is carried along by the train, which continued for hundreds of metres.
Emergency teams rushed to the scene and were met by chaos and devastation.
A photo taken soon after the catastrophe shows the rear end of the bus with the roof totally blown off.
Passengers can be seen cowering in the open air.
Ambulance crews from multiple regions as well as the Red Cross worked on the injured and helped extract survivors from the wreckage.
Shocking moment speeding car flies off unfinished bridge and EXPLODES in mid-air before plummeting into river
Despite their best efforts, ten people died and another 45 were injured.
The authorities have launched an investigation into what happened.
The bus, marked number 6002, was travelling from San Felipe del Progreso to Mexico City.
Its driver’s decision to move onto the tracks seem inexplicable from the footage.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City of Mexico, the train line, confirmed the accident and sent its condolences to the families of the victims.
City officials in Atlacomulco asked residents to refrain from going to the site of the collision and offered their condolences to the families of the victims who died.
A statement posted to social media read: “We express our sincere solidarity to the families affected at this time.”
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Rescuers work to pull survivors from the wreckageCredit: x/@MeganoticiasTol
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Terrified passengers cower after the roof was ripped offCredit: x/@MeganoticiasTol
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Soldiers and rescuers at the scene of the deadly collisionCredit: AP
Last week, at least 15 people were killed after a packed tourist bus plunged off a mountain road in Sri Lanka.
The bus crashed into another vehicle before smashing through guardrails.
The fatal accident took place near the town of Wellawaya in the mountainous Ella region which sits just 174 miles east of the capital Colombo.
Sixteen others, including five children, on board were injured but managed to escape the wreckage.
Police confirmed the group was made up of local tourists who had been visiting lush tea plantation hill towns in the area.
Pictures show the smashed up bus on the ground after the horror fall.
Authorities say more than 60 were injured in the crash, northwest of Mexico City, as the cause remains unclear.
Published On 8 Sep 20258 Sep 2025
At least 10 people have been killed after a freight train hit a double-decker bus in Mexico, according to authorities.
The crash occurred in an industrial zone on the highway between Atlacomulco, a town about 115km (71 miles) northwest of Mexico City, and Maravatio in the Michoacan state on Monday.
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Images from the crash showed portions of the top deck of the bus smashed in and its metal frame badly dented. First responders were on the scene and cordoned off the area.
Authorities said at least 61 others were injured in the incident.
Authorities work at the scene where a passenger bus was struck by a train in Atlacomulco, Mexico [File: Jorge Alvarado/Reuters]
The State of Mexico’s attorney general’s office said that seven of those killed were women and three were men.
The circumstances surrounding the crash were not immediately clear, although a video circulating online showed the bus inching across the train tracks as it waited in traffic.
Another video, from after the collision, showed the bus at rest to the side of the tracks, with the roof missing. People could be seen moving on the top level as the train slowed to a stop.
“Help me, help me,” a woman could be heard crying.
The train operator, Canadian Pacific Kansas City of Mexico, confirmed the accident and sent its condolences to the families of the victims.
Emergency vehicles are parked at the scene where a passenger bus was struck by a train in Atlacomulco, Mexico [Jorge Alvarado/Reuters]
The Calgary-based company said its personnel were on site and cooperating with authorities.
Rebeca Miranda told The Associated Press news agency her sister and her sister’s daughter-in-law were on the bus when it was hit at about 6:30am (12:30 GMT).
She said her sister was taken to hospital and was able to speak, but the other woman died in the accident. She said both were domestic workers.
“It’s really unfortunate,” she told the news agency. “Why? To beat the train. Those are lives.”
A passenger bus veered off the road in a mountainous region in Sri Lanka, plunging down a 300-metre precipice and killing at least 15 people onboard. Authorities say the driver was speeding and lost control of the vehicle.
Planned strikes over pay, shift patterns and fatigue management are set to disrupt the London Underground tube lines from this week, with DLR staff also taking industrial action over ‘pay and conditions’
London Underground tube drivers are set to strike over pay(Image: Getty Images/Stock Image)
London is bracing for travel chaos this week as planned strikes over pay, shift patterns and fatigue management are set to disrupt the Underground tube lines.
Transport for London (TfL) confirmed that from Sunday, 7 September until Thursday, 11 September, tube services will be “severely disrupted, with little to no service expected”. There will also be no DLR (Docklands Light Railway) service on Tuesday, 8 September and again on Thursday, 11 September.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which represents tube drivers, said they were taking industrial action over “pay, fatigue management, extreme shift patterns and a reduction in the working week”. They also confirmed that DLR staff would be striking in a separate dispute “over pay and conditions”.
Planned London Underground strikes will heavily disrupt travel this month (Image: Getty Images)
In addition to this, bus routes across London were disrupted due to strike action on First Bus services that took place from August 29 to 30, and again from September 1 to 2. Thousands of bus drivers, engineers and controllers at London United and London Transit, both linked to parent company First Bus London, are said to have taken action over “low pay and awful conditions”.
As strikes continue across London this week, we’ve taken a look at what London tube and bus drivers earn. Here’s everything we know…
What do TfL Underground tube drivers earn?
According to The Standard, a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request to TfL revealed that the yearly wage for a TfL tube operator, also known as a driver, in April 2024 was £65,179, while advanced operators pocketed £75,677.
The standard hourly rate for a regular operator was £35.70, while advanced operators took home £39.20 an hour. The overtime rate per hour for a standard driver was disclosed as £44.62 and £49.00 for advanced drivers.
It was also revealed that tube drivers typically work around 35 hours a week over roughly three and a half shifts.
What do TfL bus drivers earn?
TfL bus drivers are reported to earn between £15 and £20 an hour, depending on their experience. This is estimated to earn them around £31,000 to £37,440 annually.
What do Elizabeth line drivers earn?
Drivers on the Elizabeth line are reported to earn significantly more than the average tube driver after they secured a deal in February to boost their salaries to £75,000.
Amid the upcoming planned strikes, TfL confirmed that the Elizabeth line, London Overground, and trams will continue to run as their staff belong to a different union. However, they’ve cautioned that despite the services running as usual, they are expected to be extremely busy.
It’s also crucial to note that the Elizabeth line or the Overground may not stop at certain stations if they are shut due to the industrial action. Moreover, planned engineering works are scheduled on some Overground and Elizabeth lines during the strikes.
Everyone is urged to check their journey before they travel when using any service. You can do this on the TfL website here.
Aug. 22 (UPI) — At least five people, including a child, died when a chartered tour bus crashed and rolled in upstate New York while returning from Niagara Falls on Friday.
The bus was carrying 52 people, including the driver, when it crashed in Pembroke, about 25 miles east of Buffalo on Interstate-90 between exits 49 and 48A in a single-vehicle accident, Spectrum News 1 reported. The crash occurred before 12:30 p.m.
The rollover accident ejected many of the passengers from the bus.
The bus was returning to New York City from Niagara Falls when the driver lost control, struck the median, overcorrected and went into a ditch, which caused a deadly rollover, New York State Police spokesman James O’Callaghan told media.
He said at least one of the fatalities was a child.
“It’s a very volatile scene,” O’Callaghan said. “We have vehicles going the wrong way on the 90.”
All passengers suffered at least minor injuries, and many were not wearing seatbelts when the accident occurred, he added.
The driver survived the accident and is doing well, O’Callaghan said.
“We’re working with him,” he added. “We have a good idea of what happened [and] why the bus lost control.”
O’Callaghan did not elaborate on the accident’s likely cause.
Area hospitals have treated more than 40 people for injuries, which include head trauma, broken legs and broken arms, according to PBS.
Most of the passengers were visitors from India, China and the Philippines, and first responders took accident victims to three area hospitals.
Because most are international travelers, hospitals used translation devices to communicate with many of them.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a social media post, called the accident “tragic” and said first responders are assisting all involved.
Five people have died after a tourist bus returning from Niagara Falls crashed on the motorway in western New York.
Witnesses saw the vehicle lose control and turn over approximately 40 miles (64km) from Niagara Falls, a major tourist destination on the US-Canada border.
Most of the 52 people on board are from India, China and the Philippines. Some were thrown from the vehicle, and others were trapped inside the wreckage for several hours, police have said. It is believed most were not wearing seat belts.
The cause of the crash is not known and authorities have urged drivers with dashcam footage to come forward.
Ambulances and medical helicopters were sent to the crash site, near the town of Pembroke, 30 miles (48km) east of the city of Buffalo.
Translators and translation devices were brought to the scene and hospitals to assist in the investigation.
Andre Ray major, New York State Police troop commander, told a news conference: “The cause of the collision is still under investigation. However, mechanical failure as well as operator impairment have been ruled out at this time.
“The operator has been cooperative and with the investigation still underway. No charges have been filed at this point.”
The bus was heading eastbound and lost control, veering into the median and then into a ditch, according police.
The passengers were aged between one and 74. Several children were on board at the time of the crash, police say.
Twenty-four adult patients were admitted to one local hospital, and doctors say they’re expected to make a full recovery. Other area hospitals also received patients, and those under 16 who survived were taken to a children’s hospital.
One witness told The Buffalo News that he saw a bus lying on its side and items strewn on the roadway following the crash.
“There was glass all over the road and people’s stuff all over the road,” said Powell Stephens, who drove past the crash site.
“Windows were all shattered. Everyone seemed conscious and OK, but I only saw the scene for about 15 seconds.”
ConnectLife, an organisation that provides blood to hospitals in the region, has issued an emergency appeal for blood donations.
“Our community is facing a crisis,” said spokeswoman Sarah Diina.
“This is one of those moments when your action can directly save lives,” said Diina.
The Red Cross has opened a family reunification centre to connect children and parents who were transported to different hospitals.
Passengers from China, India, the Philippines, the Middle East and the US were on board the bus when it crashed at full speed.
Five people were killed and many were injured when a tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls with 54 people on board crashed and rolled on its side on an interstate highway, authorities said.
A police spokesman said the bus left the road on a highway about 40km (25 miles) east of the northern city of Buffalo on Friday.
An investigation into the cause of the crash is under way but police said they suspect the driver, who survived, became distracted, lost control of the vehicle at “full speed”, and oversteered, causing the bus to flip over and come to a rest in a ditch.
Authorities have ruled out mechanical failure and driver health issues, and said no other vehicles were involved.
According to police, bus passengers were from China, India, the Middle East, the Philippines and the US. Translators were sent to the scene to help communicate with the victims.
The Mercy Flight medical transport service said its three helicopters and three more from other services transported people from the crash site to hospitals in the area.
More than 40 people were evaluated and treated for injuries ranging from head trauma to broken arms and legs.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to New York to investigate the crash.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said her team was coordinating with state police and local officials “who are working to rescue and provide assistance to everyone involved”.
Blood and organ donor network Connect Life issued a call for blood donors to come forward in the wake of the crash.
“I’m heartbroken for all those we’ve lost and all those injured and praying for their families. Thank you to our brave first responders on the scene,” senior US senator from New York Chuck Schumer said.
The bus was returning from a day trip to the popular tourist destination of Niagara Falls – towering waterfalls that span the US-Canada border – when the accident occurred.
Aug. 22 (UPI) — An undetermined number of people have died and many remained trapped inside a tour bus that crashed in upstate New York while returning from Niagara Falls on Friday afternoon, authorities said.
The bus was carrying 52 people, including the driver, when it crashed about 25 miles east of Buffalo on Interstate-90 between exits 49 and 48A, Spectrum News 1 reported.
The rollover accident ejected many of the passengers from the bus, and several passengers had died as of 2:30 p.m. EDT.
The bus was returning to New York City from Niagara Falls when the driver lost control for unknown reasons, causing a deadly rollover, New York State Police spokesman James O’Callaghan told media.
He said at least one of the fatalities was a child.
“It’s a very volatile scene,” O’Callaghan said. “We have vehicles going the wrong way on the 90.”
Most of the passengers were visitors from India, China and the Philippines, and first responders are taking accident victims to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a social media post, called the accident “tragic” and said first responders are assisting all involved.
A passenger bus carrying Afghan returnees from Iran struck a motorcycle and a fuel truck, triggering a huge fire.
The death toll from a bus crash in western Afghanistan has risen to 79, after two survivors died from their injuries, an interim Taliban administration official said.
The incident occurred late on Tuesday in Herat province’s Guzara district, when a passenger bus carrying Afghan returnees from Iran struck a motorcycle and a fuel truck, triggering a huge fire.
At least 19 children were among those killed, Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesman for the interim Interior Ministry, told reporters in Kabul on Wednesday.
Mohammad Janan Moqadas, chief physician at the military hospital, said many bodies were too badly burned to be identified.
A journalist with the AFP news agency reported that cleanup crews were working on Wednesday to remove the burned-out bus and the twisted wreckage of the other vehicles.
“There was a lot of fire… There was a lot of screaming, but we couldn’t even get within 50 metres to rescue anyone,” witness Akbar Tawakoli, 34, told AFP. “Only three people were saved from the bus. They were also on fire and their clothes were burned.”
Abdullah, 25, another witness, told AFP, “I was very saddened that most of the passengers on the bus were children and women.”
Security personnel stand guard at the site of a bus crash in Guzara district of Herat province on August 20, 2025 [Mohsen Karimi/AFP]
The bus was transporting Afghans recently expelled from Iran to the capital, Kabul, provincial spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi said. The central government has ordered an investigation.
“It is with deep sorrow that we mourn the loss of numerous Afghan lives and the injuries sustained in a tragic bus collision and subsequent fire in Herat province last night,” it said in a statement.
More than 1.5 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan this year alone, according to the United Nations migration agency, as both countries step up deportations after decades of hosting Afghan refugees. Many arrive with little means and face dire conditions in a country battling poverty and mass unemployment.
The state-run Bakhtar News Agency described the incident as one of Afghanistan’s deadliest accidents in recent years.
In December 2023, two separate bus crashes involving tankers killed 52 people, while in March 2024, another 20 died in a collision in Helmand province. In late 2022, a tanker overturned in the Salang Pass, igniting a fire that killed 31.
Police in western Afghanistan’s Herat province say the accident was due to the bus’s ‘excessive speed and negligence’.
At least 71 people, including 17 children, have been killed in western Afghanistan after a passenger bus carrying refugees, recently deported from neighbouring Iran, caught fire after colliding with a truck and motorcycle, according to provincial government spokesman Ahmadullah Muttaqi and local police.
Police in Herat province said on Tuesday that the accident was due to the bus’s “excessive speed and negligence”.
The accident took place a day after Iranian Minister of Interior Eskandar Momeni announced that a further 800,000 people would have to leave the country by next March.
The bus was carrying Afghans recently returned from Iran and en route to the capital Kabul, provincial official Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi told the AFP news agency on Tuesday. He added that all the passengers boarded the vehicle in Islam Qala, a border crossing point.
Taliban government chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to the dpa news agency that the victims had been deported from Iran, but said that further details were not available immediately.
Police in the Guzara district outside Afghanistan’s city of Herat, where the accident occurred, said a motorcycle was also involved.
The majority of those who died were on the bus, but two people travelling in the truck were also killed, as well as another two who were on the motorcycle.
Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of war, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of regulation.
Last December, two bus accidents, involving a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan, killed at least 52 people.
Every year, conflict, persecution, poverty and high unemployment drive large numbers of Afghans to cross the 300km (186-mile) Islam Qala border into Iran without documentation. Many work in low-wage jobs in big cities, including on construction sites, where they are valued as cheap and reliable labour.
Nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since early June, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), after Tehran imposed a July 6 deadline for undocumented refugees to leave the country.
The surge compounds Afghanistan’s existing challenges, as the impoverished nation, back under hardline Taliban rule since 2021, struggles to integrate waves of returnees from Pakistan and Iran since 2023, amid one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises after decades of conflict.
The UNHCR reports that more than 1.4 million people have “returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan” this year alone. Iran’s late May directive potentially affects 4 million undocumented Afghans among the approximately 6 million Afghan residents claimed by Tehran.
Border crossings increased dramatically from mid-June, with some days seeing approximately 40,000 people entering Afghanistan. Between June 1 and July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, bringing the 2024 total to 906,326, according to an International Organization for Migration spokesman.
Ridership across Metro’s transit system plunged in June after federal immigration authorities conducted dramatic raids across Los Angeles County, sowing fear among many rail and bus riders.
Last month, the transit agency’s passenger numbers on buses continued to dip, although the reasons are not fully clear.
Ridership on rail crept up roughly 6.5% in July after a decrease of more than 3.7 million boardings across the rail and bus system the month before. Bus ridership accounted for the bulk of the June hit, with a ridership drop of more than 3.1 million from May. In July, bus boardings continued to decrease slightly by nearly 2%.
While it’s possible that concerns over safety have persisted as immigration raids continued to play out in the Los Angeles region, a drop in bus ridership from June to July in years past has not been uncommon, according to Metro data. A review of the number of boardings from 2018 shows routine dips in bus ridership during the summer months.
The agency said “there is a seasonal pattern to ridership and historically bus ridership is lower in July than June when schools and colleges are not in regular session and people are more likely to take time off from work.”
June saw a roughly 13.5% decline from the month before — the lowest June on record since 2022, when boardings had begun to climb again after the pandemic.
The reduction in passengers was not felt along every rail line and bus route. Metro chief executive Stephanie Wiggins noted during a board of directors meeting last month that the K Line saw a 140% surge in weekday ridership in June and a roughly 200% increase in weekend ridership after the opening of the LAX/Metro Transit Center.
Metro has struggled with ridership in recent years, first when the pandemic shuttered transit and then when a spate of violence on rail and buses shook trust in the system. Those numbers started to rebound this year and before June’s drop, had reached 90% of pre-pandemic counts.
But financial challenges have continued. Metro, which recently approved a $9.4 billion budget, faces a deficit of more than $2.3 billion through 2030. And federal funding for its major Olympics and Paralympics transportation plan to lease thousands of buses remains in flux. Maintaining ridership growth is critical for the the agency.
More than 60% of Metro bus riders and roughly 50% of its rail riders are Latino, according to a 2023 Metro survey. The decline in June’s ridership was due in part to growing concerns that transit riders would be swept up in immigration raids. Those fears were magnified when a widely shared video showed several residents apprehended at a bus stop in Pasadena.
Three of the men who were arrested at the stop by federal agents are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Trump administration. They spoke earlier this month at a news conference in favor of the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals decision to uphold a temporary restraining order against the immigration stops and arrests.
Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, a day laborer, said he was taken by unidentified men while waiting at the bus stop to go to work like he did every day. He said that he was placed in a small space without access to a bathroom or adequate food, water and medicine. Vasquez Perdomo said the experience “changed my life forever” and called for “justice.”
Closures at stations during the raids and D Line construction beneath Wilshire Boulevard also affected June’s numbers, according to Metro officials.
IPSWICH TOWN were unbelievably forced to hold their half-time team-talk on their team BUS due to a plumbing issue during their Carabao Cup clash with Bromley.
Championship outfit Ipswich travelled to Hayes Lane to take on League Two side Bromley in the first round of the competition.
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Ipswich Town were forced to hold their half-time team talk on their team due to a plumbing issue during their Carabao Cup clash with BromleyCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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League Two Bromley had gone 1-0 up against the Championship side on the stroke of half-timeCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Kieran McKenna‘s side had been playing in the Premier League last season, lining up in stadiums like Old Trafford and the Emirates in front of tens of thousands of fans.
But the Tractor Boys were slapped in the face by the reality of the football pyramid when they found themselves taking on Bromley in their 1,300-seat Hayes Lane ground.
That reality hit even harder when they went in trailing 1-0 at half-time, only to be told they had to hold their team talk on their team bus due to plumbing problems in the changing rooms.
Their squad, which featured the likes of Ashley Young and Ben Johnson, had to cram onto the bus just so that they could use the toilet.
However, the unusual circumstances didn’t seem to immediately bother the travelling team as they came out swinging in the second half.
Former West Ham man Johnson netted an equaliser just nine minutes after the break.
That was only enough to force penalties as Bromley held firm to keep the game tied at a goal a piece.
Incredibly, Bromley seemingly pulled off the impossible as they came out on top in the test of nerves from 12 yards – knocking out their heavyweight opposition on a historic night for the club.
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Ben Johnson equalised for Ipswich just nine minutes after the restartCredit: PA
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Bromley won the game on penaltiesCredit: PA
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Ed Sheeran was watching on from the standsCredit: Getty
The result will have been a frustration for pop superstar Ed Sheeran, a minority owner of Ipswich, who had made the journey to watch the game from the stands.
The first round of the Carabao Cup had already thrown up some madness throughout the evening.
Carabao Cup introduces popular new feature on 24 teams’ shirts as Arsenal are brutally trolled
The clash was called off just 26 minutes before kick-off after a Scottish Power outage had left Tranmere unable to operate any tills, floodlights and some of the turnstiles.
![Security personnel stand guard at the site of a bus crash in Guzara district of Herat province on August 20, 2025. [Mohsen Karimi/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/000_69YR9KF-1755690566.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
