At least 16 people died in Peru when a bus rolled off a ledge in the mountainous Ayacucho region, local authorities said.
The bus was carrying more than 40 passengers high in the Andes, where such accidents are common.
An Ayacucho official said that 13 bodies had already been recovered and three more had yet to be retrieved from under the bus. “Yes, we have 16 dead,” he confirmed.
Bad weather including falling hail was delaying the recovery of the remaining bodies, he added.
The crash occurred early Tuesday as the bus was traveling from Lima to the city of Ayacucho on a zigzag stretch of the Libertadores highway, the Peruvian health ministry said in a statement.
On April 30, at least 25 people died after a bus fell into a ravine in the Cajamarca region. Peru registered a total of 3,138 deaths from traffic accidents in 2023, according to Peru’s Ministry of Transportation.
Source: Qatar News Agency