At least 55 dead in Guatemala after bus plunges off bridge
The packed bus fell into a sewage-polluted river, landing upside down and half-submerged
At least 55 people were killed in Guatemala on Monday when a bus crashed through a guard rail and plunged into a ravine, authorities said, one of the worst road accidents in Latin America in years.
The bus was carrying around 70 people when it fell into a river contaminated with sewage in Guatemala City, creating difficult conditions for rescuers trying to retrieve bodies.
“So far, 53 people have died at the scene,” a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office, Moises Ortiz, told reporters.
Two others died after they were admitted, along with several other people, to the San Juan de Dios Hospital, spokeswoman Marlyn Perez said.
The bodies recovered at the site were taken to an improvised morgue in a nearby community hall where several distressed relatives went, fearing the worst.