LIMA: Eleven people are dead after a bus full of students, teachers and parents plunged off a cliffside road in Peru, authorities said on Sunday.
According to Peru's Andina news agency, the bus – carrying 57 people – collided head on with a van before veering off the road on Saturday.
"We have 11 deceased as a result of the accident. Among them, there are five 17-year-old schoolchildren and a two-year-old child," Jorge Sanchez, director of the regional directorate of San Martin, told AFP.
Authorities said 18 people were injured.
The bus was carrying a group of schoolchildren, their families and teachers from the town of Piura, in the country's north, to the Amazonian department of San Martin.
It crashed while driving along a road in the province of Moyobamba, in the San Marin region.
According to local media, the crash occurred while the high school students were on a class trip.
The Andean country has a high incidence of bus accidents, with 3,138 deaths recorded in traffic accidents in 2023, according to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. - AFP