Peru coach crash: 24 killed as bus falls into ravine

The coach plunged some 200m from a mountain road into a ravine

At least 24 people have been killed and 21 injured in a coach crash in Peru.

The inter-city coach was travelling overnight in the Andes mountains between the cities of Huancayo and Huanta when it fell into a 200m-deep (650 ft) ravine.

Coach crashes are common in Peru, especially at night and on mountain highways.

Official figures suggest more than 3,300 people died in traffic accidents in the Andean country in 2022.

So far, officials have not said what might have caused the coach to veer off the road and into the ravine in an area known as Huaccoto, high in the Andes mountains.

However, the mayor of a nearby town told local radio that the highway where the accident happened had not been repaired since it had been damaged in a landslide a month ago.

Firefighters from the towns of Huanta and the province of Churcampa were dispatched to the location where the accident occurred.

Locals were the first to arrive at the scene and found some passengers alive in the vehicle.

They said that the coach had come to rest in some bushes, whose branches prevented it from being washed away by the nearby river.

Police and firefighters managed to free the survivors and take them to the nearest hospitals.