Two teenage girls were killed and 72 other people injured when a bus overturned on Cassier road in Shongweni, near Durban on Saturday, paramedics said.
One of the teenage girls was trapped inside the bus and had to be freed by bystanders on the scene, ER24 spokeswoman Luyanda Majija said.
The second girl was found lying in the road.
"The teenagers are suspected to have succumbed to spinal injuries as their bodies revealed no evidence of external injuries," Majija said.
The cause of the accident was unknown but paramedics were told that the driver of the 80-seater bus lost control of the vehicle as it was moving up the road from Shongweni township towards Hillcrest, she said.
No other vehicles were involved in the accident.
The driver of the bus was one of the people injured.
Earlier, Netcare 911 spokeswoman Santi Steinmann said the injured had moderate to serious injuries and were taken to hospital.