According to official sources and local press, a bus fell off a cliff in the Piura region of northern Peru early on Saturday (Jan. 28), leaving at least 25 people dead and an undetermined number injured.
According to the news agency France-Presse (AFP), the vehicle belonging to the company Q’orianka Tours had left Lima and was heading to Tumbes, which is on the border with Ecuador.
About 260 kilometers before reaching its destination, the bus ran off the road in a desert area.
The accident, whose causes are unknown, happened around 3:00 a.m. (6:00 a.m. Brasilia time) on a stretch of road linking the towns of El Alto-Los Órganos and the city of Talara, more than 1,000 kilometers north of Lima.
The RPP television station reported that the accident happened at kilometer 121 of the Panamericana Norte highway and that the bus carried about 60 passengers.
Some people were thrown out the windows, and others were trapped inside the vehicle.
The injured were taken to hospitals in El Alto and Máncora, popular summer resorts in the country, on the way to Piura.