More than two
dozen people have been killed and 13 others injured after a bus plunged into a
ravine in Indonesia.
The bus
carrying dozens of passengers, some of whom are still trapped inside, careered
into a 80m (262ft) ravine in the South Sumatra province just before midnight
(4pm) on Monday and crashed into a fast-flowing river after the driver lost
control of the vehicle in an area with a number of sharp inclines.
The head of
the search and rescue team, Berty Kowas, told local news reporters that”Currently
the evacuation is ongoing and some divers are searching (for victims) around
the bus,”.
Footage
shared by the rescue team showed bodies being taken out of the water on to
stretchers. Police and rescuers were scouring the river and the nearby slopes
to look for victims and several passengers were feared missing.
A local
police spokesman, Dolly Gumara, told “It crashed into the concrete road
barrier before plunging into the ravine. Some people are still trapped inside
the bus.”
The accident
happened in a remote and steep area near the town of Pagar Alam. The town’s
location has hampered efforts to rescue the victims.
The regional
bus left Bengkulu province for Pagar Alam with only 27 passengers but some
survivors told police there were about 50 people on board when the accident
happened.
Traffic
accidents are common in the Southeast Asian archipelago, where vehicles are
often old and poorly maintained and road rules regularly flouted.
