At least 18 people were killed and 27 injured when a bus travelling from Lima to Peru’s Amazon region overturned on a highway in the Andes Mountains, authorities said Friday.
The bus, which landed on its roof next to a river, was carrying more than 60 people from the capital Lima to the jungle city of La Merced when it veered off a winding, narrow road, local media reported.
“So far we’ve recorded 18 fatalities from the accident,” a spokesperson for health services of the central city of Tarma, 240 kilometres (149 miles) east of Lima, told AFP.
A bus carrying 66 passengers overturned in the Andes mountains in Peru, killing at least 18 people and injuring 24 others, according to regional health authorities pic.twitter.com/A8ickhIlDi
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Initial reports put the death toll at 15, with 30 injured, but three victims died after being taken to a hospital. Two children were among the dead.
Emergency teams were at the scene of the incident. The cause of the crash has not been identified yet.
Road accidents are a common occurrence in the South American country, due to a combination of speeding and poor road conditions.
Police recorded a total of 3,173 traffic-related deaths last year.
