At least 39 people perished in a bus disaster in Panama early on Wednesday, most of them undocumented migrants headed for the US who had just survived a treacherous jungle crossing, according to officials.
Without specifying the number, Panama’s National Migration Service stated that the injured, including children, were receiving care at numerous hospitals and clinics.
It was said that the most recent fatality toll was based on “preliminary information.” According to the news release, the bus had “66 passengers on board” when it collided with a minibus and descended a valley around 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Panama City.
The migrants were being transported by bus from the Darien Gap, a hostile jungle region that borders Colombia. From there, they were traveling westward toward Costa Rica with the goal of continuing their trek via Central America and Mexico before arriving in the United States.
The travelers were scheduled to stop at a hostel in Gualaca close to the Costa Rican border to relax before continuing their journey.
The site where a bus transporting migrant people crashed remains cordoned in Gualaca, Panama
According to local media, the bus was being turned around by the driver when it crashed after missing the guesthouse.
According to reports, it went off the road around a bend and fell into a ravine, striking a boulder and a minibus on the road below.
“We saw it coming and dived under the seats, the driver and myself, and because of that nothing happened to us,” Edgar Guerra, one of the two people inside the minibus, told local media.
Although the occupants’ nationalities have not been made public, Bruno Rodriguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, claimed on Twitter that Cubans were among the deceased.
