25 die as bus plunges into 500ft deep ravine

Twenty five people were confirmed dead and 14 others injured after a bus plunged into 150metre deep ravine in South Sumatra province of Indonesia, a rescuer said on Tuesday.

The bus was carrying dozens of passengers when it careered into the ravine just before midnight (1600 GMT) on Monday and ended up in a river, police said earlier.

Originally the death toll given by police was 24, but the head of the local search and rescue team Berty Kowas said another body was found, taking the number to 25.

“Currently the evacuation is ongoing and some divers are searching (for victims) around the bus,” Kowas told Metro TV on Tuesday.

Footage shared by the rescue team showed bodies being taken out of the water onto stretchers.

“It crashed into the concrete road barrier before plunging into the ravine. Some people are still trapped inside the bus,” local police spokesman Dolly Gumara told AFP on Tuesday, adding no other vehicle was involved.

Search and rescue teams have been deployed to look for victims, Gumara said, adding injured survivors were taken to hospital.

Traffic accidents are common in the Southeast Asian archipelago, where vehicles are often old and poorly maintained and road rules regularly flouted.

In September, at least 21 people died when a bus plunged into a ravine in West Java’s Sukabumi region.

Several months earlier, 12 people were killed and dozens more injured when a passenger tried to wrest control of a bus steering wheel following an argument with the driver on the same toll road in West Java as Thursday’s accident. The bus smashed into two cars, causing a truck to roll.