LUSAKA, Zambia — A bus operated by Zambia’s postal service carrying passengers toward its capital smashed into a semi-truck and another car Thursday, killing at least 53 people in one of the worst traffic crashes in the nation in recent history, officials said.

The crash happened Thursday morning near the town of Chifamba, about 60 miles north of Lusaka, police spokeswoman Elizabeth Kanjela said. Images carried by local media in Zambia showed rescuers climbing over the smashed-in front-end of the white bus, the remains of the orange semi-truck in pieces in front of it. Other images showed corpses laying alongside the two-lane highway that connects the capital to Tanzania.