A bus has ploughed into a crowd taking part in an early-morning street festival in Haiti, killing at least 34 people and injuring 17 others, rescue officials said.

The accident occurred in the city of Gonaives at about 3am on Sunday when a passenger bus first hit two people at a bus stop and then continued into a crowd of people participating in a Rara festival, an Easter season Haitian musical celebration, said Josepth Faustin, civil defence co-ordinator for the Artibonito region.

Mr Faustin said angry festival-goers then attacked the bus and tried to burn it before police rescued the passengers aboard.

The bus driver fled and was being sought.

Mr Faustin said the cause of the accident was unclear.

The injured were being treated at a hospital in Gonaives, about 100 kilometres north-west of the capital Port-au-Prince.

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