OGUN, Nigeria - At least 33 persons were on Friday feared dead when a fully loaded passenger bus plunged into a river in Southwest Nigeria's Ogun State Sagamu-Ore Expressway.

Three other passengers, however survived the accident.

The accident was said to have occurred when the coaster passenger bus skidded off the dual carriageway and plunged into the river.

The Federal Road Safety Corps Unit Commander, Ijebu - Ode, Seidu Isah Osilama, said the commission's operatives who arrived at the scene of the accident few minutes after it occurred rescued the three survivors.

Osilama said the survivors escape being drowned because they fell off the bus and landed on a tree where they remained until his men came to rescue them.

Head of Operation of the FRSC in Ogun State, Cecilia Alao told Xinhua that a commercial bus conveying mostly women on a burial trip from Lagos to Benin plunged into River J4, near Ogbere on the Ijebu-Ode-Ore Expressway on Friday, leaving no fewer than 33 persons dead.

The accident occurred at about 12 noon local time when the driver of the 36-seater coastal bus slept off, Alao added.