Tanzanian authorities are holding 63 illegal immigrants from Ethiopia who were seized in Njombe region, with about 40 others said to be on the run.
Police said that about 100 Ethiopian immigrants sneaked into Tanzania via Nairobi and Mombasa on their way to South Africa but the lorry they were travelling in was intercepted following an accident in the area over the Easter weekend.
Njombe Regional Police Commander Hamis Issah said that a Scania lorry ferrying the Ethiopians stalled after it was involved in an accident with a car and the immigrants escaped.
Njombe Regional Immigration Officer Vincent Haule confirmed the incident and said that 63 Ethiopians, who looked exhausted, were arrested from a hideout in a nearby farm, and that police were still searching for about other 40 escapees.
Mr Haule said that the Ethiopians sneaked into the country through the porous border between Tanzania and Kenya.
