Palembang (Indonesia): At least 27 people were killed and more than a dozen were injured after a bus plunged into a ravine in this city of Indonesia, officials said Tuesday.
The bus careered into a 150-metre (500-foot) ravine in South Sumatra province just before midnight (1600 GMT) Monday and ended up in a river, according to police.
Head of the local search and rescue team Berty Kowaas said divers were searching near the bus, which was half submerged. Rescuers were also scouring nearby slopes for the missing.
“The current in the river is quite strong so there’s a possibility some victims were carried away,” Kowaas was quoted as saying by a local TV channel.
Footage shared by the rescue team showed bodies being retrieved out of the river and placed on stretchers.
Local police chief Dolly Gumara earlier said the bus was carrying more people than initially believed and several passengers could still be missing. No other vehicle was involved in the accident, she added.
According to a passenger manifest, the regional bus left Bengkulu province for Pagar Alam with 27 on board but some survivors told police there were around 50 people inside when the accident happened.
“Some passengers were probably added along the way so there’s possibility of some more people are still missing in the river,” Gumara said. Injured survivors have been taken to hospital for treatment and the cause of the accident is being investigated,” she added.
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.
AFP
