LIMA – A double-deck bus veered off the Panamerican Highway and tumbled about 200 meters (650 feet) down a cliff in southern Peru on Wednesday, killing at least 44 people.
The death toll is likely to rise amid rescue work.
Breaking: At least 44 dead after double deck bus veers off highway and tumbles over 600 feet down a cliff in Peru. pic.twitter.com/iLt2TQDXT6
— PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) February 21, 2018
About two dozen people were injured. Some were flown to hospitals in military helicopters.
The bus operated by the Rey Latino line ran off the road in Arequipa shortly after midnight near the mouth of the Ocona River on Peru’s southern Pacific coast.
The cause wasn’t immediately known, but accidents caused by reckless driving on poorly maintained mountain roads claim dozens of lives every year in Peru.
Last month, fifty-two people were killed in the South American country’s worst road fatality in four decades.
