“According to inside sources, a total of 38 young girls have been pronounced dead, with more than 20 others seriously injured”, said Lucky Lukhele, spokesperson for the Swaziland Solidarity Network.

Death toll from a truck crash involving young girls has risen to 65, the Swaziland Solidarity Network has reported. The girls were on their way to participate in the annual Umhlanga Reed dance at Swazi King’s royal residence.

It gathers about 40,000 single girls and women at the Royal Village, who sing and dance for eight days.

The king said there would be an investigation into the crash, and promised that the affected families would be compensated.

The girls were said to be packed like cattle into two open lorries on their way to the ceremony when one of the lorries hit a auto and the other slammed into the back of it.

Police in Swaziland, a small mountainous country of 1.4 million people bordering northeastern South Africa and Mozambique, discouraged reporting on the accident, said the group.

Photographers were however, restricted from the scene according to Swazi journalist, for security reasons, but reports on the tragedy, described the scene as chaoic, as parents began to arrive at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, in Manzini.

The Swazi government has not yet released an official death toll. Nevertheless some individuals managed to take pictures with their cellphones. Swaziland held parliamentary elections in 2013, however many worldwide observers say the electoral course of is manipulated to extend the king’s maintain on energy. Swaziland’s King Mswati III also joined the dancing, as Ghana’s Ashanti king watched from the stands.

Swaziland is one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies.