A crash between a passenger bus and a truck early Saturday killed 38 people on a highway in Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil, officials said.

Authorities on Sunday raised to 41 the death toll in a weekend bus crash in southeastern Brazil that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called a "terrible tragedy."That toll was up from the 38 deaths announced after the crash Saturday,

The accident in Minas Gerais state, involving a bus that caught fire in the collision, was the worst on Brazil’s federal highways since 2007, the Brazilian Federal Highway Police (PRF) said. Civil police confirmed 38 fatalities with nine people hospitalized.

Close to 40 people have been killed in a devastating accident between a passenger bus and a track over the weekend. According to reports from authorities, 38 people have died following an accident between a passenger bus and a truck early on Saturday morning.