A double-decker bus veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine in southern Peru Wednesday, killing at least 44 people.
The bus tumbled 260 feet down a jagged slope from the Pan-American highway – Peru’s main motorway.
Arequipa police chief General Walter Ortiz ‘confirms 44 deaths,’ the interior ministry said on its Twitter account, updating an earlier toll of 35.
The bus lying at the bottom of the ravine after coming off the Pan-American highway
The vehicle ran off the road near the mouth of the Ocona River on Peru’s southern Pacific coast
The accident happened at 1.30 am and was four hours into its journey after leaving the town of Chala for Arequipa
Ortiz said 45 people were registered as passengers on the bus, but the ministry said this did not match the number of people killed or injured.
The bus operated by the Rey Latino line ran off the road near the mouth of the Ocona River on Peru’s southern Pacific coast.
However, interprovincial buses in Peru frequently pick-up and drop-off passengers en route, resulting in discrepancies in the original passenger list.
Amid the confusion, the authorities did not specify the number of people injured. It was also not known if the driver was among them.
The accident happened in darkness around 1:30 am.
Rescue teams including firefighters and police ‘have been working since dawn, coordinating the transfer and care of the injured,’ Arequipa governor Yamila Osorio wrote on her Twitter account.
The bus came off the Pan-American highway, Peru’s main motorway, near the town of Ocona
Rescuers scrambled up the steep slope of the ravine to carry survivors to the road above
Rescue workers carry a victim up from the ravine. At least 44 people have died in the crash
A survivor of the crash is carried on a stretcher after being taken to hospital by military helicopter
Rescuers used military helicopters to airlift 11 seriously injured passengers to the regional capital Arequipa
‘The on-duty prosecutor is carrying out the removal of the corpses and experts from the police traffic accident investigation section are investigating the causes of the accident,’ traffic police chief Colonel Jorge Castillo said.
The injured were taken to hospital in the city of Camana, some 35 miles from the accident site near the town of Ocona.
Rescuers used military helicopters to airlift 11 seriously injured passengers to the regional capital Arequipa, Civil Defense chief Jacqueline Choque said.
The bus left the coastal town of Chala for Arequipa about four hours before the accident.
Corpses of those who died in the crash were pulled out of the Ocona River on Peru’s southern Pacific coast
Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski sent his condolences to the victims’ families on Twitter.
‘All procedures have been activated for the immediate support of the rescue and the transfer of the victims to the nearest health centers,’ he said.
It was the second major accident on Peru’s roads this year. On January 2, a bus crashed into a ravine in the country’s central coastal area, leaving 52 dead.
Authorities attributed that accident to the driver of a truck that crossed into the bus’s path from the opposite lane of the Pasamayo highway, which branches off the Pan-American highway.
The toll from the Pasamayo crash matched that of an October 2013 accident in Cusco, southeast of Lima.
Nearly 2,700 people died in traffic accidents in Peru in 2016, according to the latest available official figures.