A bus veered off a highway bridge into a polluted ravine in Guatemala City on Monday, killing dozens of people and trapping survivors, a spokesperson for the city’s fire department said.
The bus was travelling on a busy route in and out of the city when it plunged approximately 20 metres from Puente Belice, a highway bridge that crosses over a road and creek.
Images shared by the fire department on social media showed the bus partially submerged in wastewater surrounded by victims’ bodies.
A spokesperson for the volunteer firefighters’ brigade said 51 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage, with the operation still continuing.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo declared three days of national mourning and deployed the country’s army and disaster agency to assist response efforts.
“I stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who today woke up to heartbreaking news. Their pain is my pain,” Arevalo said on social media.
The fire department said the driver lost control of the bus and collided with several small vehicles before plunging over the precipice.
“The bus kept going, broke through a metal railing, and fell into a ravine about 20 meters (65 feet) deep until it reached the sewage-contaminated river,” the department’s Carlos Hernandez told reporters.
A drone view shows first responders working at the site of a deadly bus crash (Reuters: Josue Decavele)
AFPTV images showed lines of firefighters passing bodies pulled from the murky waters, which were filled with rubbish, up the slope on stretchers.
According to local media, the bus was travelling to Guatemala City from the town of San Agustin Acasaguastlan in El Progreso department, about 90 kilometres to the north-east.
Communications Minister Miguel Angel Diaz said an initial investigation showed the bus was 30 years old but was still licensed to operate.
He said the cause of the early-morning accident was still unknown and investigators were looking into whether the bus was overloaded with passengers.
Road accidents leading to dozens of fatalities are common in Central and South America.
In January 2018, 52 people were killed in Peru when a bus fell off a cliff onto a beach north of the capital Lima.
In Brazil, 54 people were killed in March 2015 in a tourist bus crash in the southern state of Santa Catarina.
Reuters/AFP
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Publish date : 2025-02-10 02:21:00
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