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Agence France-Presse

A double-decker bus veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine in southern Peru Wednesday, killing at least 44 people.
The bus tumbled almost 100 metres down a jagged slope from the Pan-American highway – Peru’s main motorway – in the southern region of Arequipa.
Arequipa police chief General Walter Ortiz “confirms 44 deaths,” the interior ministry said on its Twitter account, updating an earlier toll of 35.
Ortiz said 45 people were registered as passengers on the bus, but the ministry said this did not match the number of people killed or injured.
However, interprovincial buses in Peru frequently pickup and drop-off passengers en route, resulting in discrepancies in the original passenger list.

Amid the confusion, the authorities did not specify the number of people injured. It was also not known if the driver was among them.
The accident happened in darkness around 1:30am. Rescue teams including firefighters and police “have been working since dawn, coordinating the transfer and care of the injured,” Arequipa governor Yamila Osorio wrote on her Twitter account.

“The on-duty prosecutor is carrying out the removal of the corpses and experts from the police traffic accident investigation section are investigating the causes of the accident,” traffic police chief Colonel Jorge Castillo said.
The injured were taken to hospital in the city of Camana, some 57 kilometres (35 miles) from the accident site near the town of Ocona.
Rescuers used military helicopters to airlift 11 seriously injured passengers to the regional capital Arequipa, Civil Defence chief Jacqueline Choque said.

The bus, operated by Rey Latino, left the coastal town of Chala for Arequipa about four hours before the accident.
Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski sent his condolences to the victims’ families on Twitter.
“All procedures have been activated for the immediate support of the rescue and the transfer of the victims to the nearest health centres,” he said.
It was the second major accident on Peru’s roads this year. On January 2, a bus crashed into a ravine in the country’s central coastal area, leaving 52 dead.
Authorities attributed that accident to the driver of a truck that crossed into the bus’s path from the opposite lane of the Pasamayo highway, which branches off the Pan-American highway.
The toll from the Pasamayo crash matched that of an October 2013 accident in Cusco, southeast of Lima.
Nearly 2,700 people died in traffic accidents in Peru in 2016, according to the latest available official figures.


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Peru

Dozens killed in Peru after double-decker bus plunges 100 metres off mountain road into ravine

It was the second major accident on Peru’s roads this year

Health workers transport a man injured in a bus crash, in Arequipa, Peru, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. The double-decker bus the man was traveling in ran off the Panamerican Highway and tumbled 200 meters (about 650 feet) down a cliff in southern Peru on Wednesday, and police said at least 44 people died. (AP Photo/Diego Ramos)

(180221) -- AREQUIPA (PERU), Feb. 21, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on Feb. 21, 2018 shows the site of a bus accident off a highway in Camana, Arequipa, Peru. At least 35 were killed and 20 were injured on Wednesday after an interprovince bus plunged off a cliff in Camana. (Xinhua/ANDINA) ***BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE***

Handout picture released by Arequipa Fire Department showing the accident where at least 35 people were killed when a bus veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine on the Panamerican road in southern Peru on February 21, 2018. At least 20 other passengers were injured when the bus left the Pan-American highway and tumbled 80 meters (260 feet) down a jagged slope in the southern region of Arequipa. The accident happened around 1.30 am (0630 GMT), Andina agency said. / AFP PHOTO / Arequipa Fire Department/ANDINA / HO / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Arequipa Fire Department/ANDINA" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE

Rescuers at the scene where the bus fell into a ravine. Photo: Reuters

48 dead after bus plunges off ‘Devil’s Curve’ in Peru, leaving bodies strewn across shore

Rescue personnel work at the site of a bus accident in Pasamayo, north of Lima on Tuesday. Photo: Xinhua

(180102) -- PASAMAYO (PERU), Jan. 2, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Rescue personnel work at the site of a bus accident in Pasamayo, north of Lima, capital of Peru, on Jan. 2, 2018. At least 25 people were killed near Peru's capital on Tuesday when their bus plummeted 400 meters off a highway and into a gorge, the Highway Police (POLCAR) said. (Xinhua/ANDINA/Vidal Tarqui)

In this photo provided by the government news agency Andina, an injured man is transported over water from a bus that fell off a cliff after it was hit by a tractor-trailer rig, in Pasamayo, Peru, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018. A Peruvian police official says at least 25 people died, and that there were more than 50 people on the bus. (Vidal Tarky, Andina News Agency via AP)

(180102) -- PASAMAYO (PERU), Jan. 2, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Rescue personnel transfer an injured person of a bus accident in Pasamayo, north of Lima, capital of Peru, on Jan. 2, 2018. At least 25 people were killed near Peru's capital on Tuesday when their bus plummeted 400 meters off a highway and into a gorge, the Highway Police (POLCAR) said. (Xinhua/ANDINA/Vidal Tarqui) ***MADE QUALITY AVAILABLE***

In this photo provided by the government news agency Andina, rescue workers surround an injured man on a stretcher who was lifted up from the site of a bus crash at the bottom of a cliff, after the bus was hit by a tractor-trailer rig in Pasamayo, Peru, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018. A Peruvian police official says at least 25 people died, and that there were more than 50 people on the bus. (Vidal Tarky, Andina News Agency via AP)

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It was the second major accident on Peru’s roads this year
