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A passenger bus collided head-on with a fuel tanker lorry on Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing at least 16 people and injuring four others, officials said.

The horrific crash occurred on Wednesday, May 6, at around midday on the Trans-Sumatra Highway in North Musi Rawas regency of South Sumatra province. The intercity bus was carrying at least 20 people when it struck a tanker lorry travelling in the opposite direction, said Mugono, a local disaster management agency official.

Mugono, who uses a single name like many Indonesians, said preliminary findings suggest the bus - which was travelling from South Sumatra's Lubuklinggau city to Jambi - may have emitted sparks shortly before the collision.

This may have prompted the driver to steer the vehicle towards the right side of the road in an attempt to prevent a more serious incident. However, an oil tanker lorry was approaching at high speed, leaving little time to avoid a direct impact.

The forceful impact triggered a fire that engulfed both vehicles, leaving many victims trapped inside," Mugono said.

The dead include the bus driver and 13 passengers as well as the tanker's driver and assistant, all of whom burned to death inside the vehicles, Mugono said.

Four bus passengers survived the crash and were taken to a nearby health clinic, including three who suffered severe burn injuries and one who sustained minor injuries, Mugono said.

As the passenger manifest is still being traced, Mugono said authorities are continuing to gather data on the full death toll.

Images and footage released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed firefighters tackling the blaze as thick clouds of black smoke and orange flames billowed into the sky.

On the ground lay the burnt-out remains of the bus and tanker lorry, with twisted metal strewn across the carriageway.

Rescue workers, including disaster response officers and traffic police, evacuated victims and cleared the wreckage, though several individuals were trapped inside the vehicles, hampering rescue efforts and causing significant disruption to traffic along the highway, Margono said.

Sixteen body bags containing the remains of victims have been received at Siti Aisyah Hospital in Lubuk Linggau for identification, North Musi Rawas' traffic police chief Muhammad Karim confirmed on Thursday.

He stated that South Sumatra police said Disaster Victim Identification teams have thus far confirmed the identities of five victims, including the bus driver, two bus crew members, the tanker driver and one passenger. The remaining 11 victims have yet to be identified as forensic teams press on with their work.

"All the bodies are severely burned, which has complicated the identification process," Karim said, adding that they are being processed before being transported by land to Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Palembang, the provincial capital, for autopsies.

He retracted his earlier preliminary findings, stating that police investigators now believe the bus veered into the oncoming lane while attempting to swerve around a pothole, triggering the head-on collision and subsequent blaze.