About 30 people died Sunday evening in central Kenya after a passenger coach fell off a bridge, a local administrative official said on Monday.

The bus plunged about forty meters into the Nithi River as it crossed a bridge known to be an accident-prone “black spot”, about fifty kilometers from the town of Meru from where it had left for the port from Mombasa (southeast).

About 20 people died instantly, four died in hospital and six bodies were pulled from the river on Monday morning, Tharaka Nithi County Warden Norbert Komora said.

"The search is still ongoing and we are trying to recover the wreckage (...) The investigation is still ongoing to establish the cause of the accident which occurred on the black point of Nithi", he added .

Photos from local media show the carcass of the bus ripped open and seats ejected from the passenger compartment.

Kenya's road death toll has been on the rise for several years.

Between January and June, 1,912 people were killed, compared to 1,754 over the same period last year (9%), according to the latest figures from the Transport and Road Safety Authority (NTSA).