Nairobi — The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has suspended all Modern Coast Bus operations following the Tharaka Nithi accident that claimed 34 lives.

According to the authority's Director General George Njau, "a thorough multi-agency investigation into the crash and an evaluation of the operator's safety operational standards is currently underway."

Njau indicated that the operations of all thirty-one vehicles belonging to Modern Coast Bus will be halted for this period.

The accident occured on Sunday at about 6pm when the Mombasa-bound bus plunged into the river, about 40 meters down, killing 20 people on the spot. Six others were pronounced dead on arrival in hospital.

The search and rescue was however, called off until Monday morning when six more bodies were retrieved.

Police said preliminary investigations had shown that the bus plunged into the river due to brake failure at the bridge that is marked as a black spot due to the high number of accidents that have occurred there.

"The accident occurred at about 6pm, and we are having challenges retrieving the bodies," a local police officer said.

There were fears that some of the bodies may have been swept away.