48 killed in Peru bus accident

At least 48 people were killed and six others injured when a bus went off a highway in Peru and plunged off a cliff, police said.

The accident occurred on Tuesday night on the Pan American Highway North about 45 km from Lima in Pasamayo, an area overlooking the Pacific Ocean known as "The Devil's Curve", reports Efe news.

"Twelve more bodies are inside the bus," the official said.

The emergency services worked to rescue the survivors and to locate the deceased among the twisted irons of the bus before the tide covered the vehicle, which belongs to the San Martin Company.

An emergency official told Efe that the rest of the bodies inside the damaged vehicle will be taken out on Wednesday.

The bus was en route to Lima from the northern city of Huaura.

The accident occurred when the bus collided with a tractor-trailer and fell off the cliff.

--IANS

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