Local authorities said on Monday that a bus in northern Peru had crashed into a ravine from a mountain route, resulting in at least 25 fatalities and over a dozen injuries.
The tragedy occurred late on Sunday on a potholed dirt road in the Andean area of Cajamarca, “and the bus fell into an abyss” that was around 200 meters (650 feet) deep, according to local official Olga Bobadilla, who spoke with RPP radio.
Later in the day, the toll was revised from an initial 23 to 25.
According to municipal official Jaime Herrera, the bus carrying over fifty people wound up on the edge of a river, and several of them were carried away by the water.
Rescue workers and firefighters were at the scene of the crash, from where the injured have been evacuated to hospital.
Desperate for news of their loved ones, scores of people gathered at a police station near the accident scene, many of them crying. The Celendin municipality announced 48 hours of mourning.
Peruvian highways are notorious for accidents because of excessive speeding, bad road conditions, a lack of signage, and lax enforcement of traffic laws.
In the past year, there were over 3,100 traffic-related deaths nationwide.
Whether the bus was roadworthy is being looked at by the authorities.
