Indonesia bus carrying school children plunges into ravine, killing 27
Rescue personnel work at the crash site after a bus fell into a ravine in Sumedang, West Java Province, Indonesia. Reuters
Gulf Today Report
A bus carrying school children and some parents returning from an excursion plunged down a steep ravine on Indonesia's Java island on Wednesday night, killing 27 people, the country’s transportation ministry said.
The authorities said on Thursday that the driver of the bus lost control shortly before the crash in an area near the city of Sumedang in West Java province.
The search and rescue agency said in a statement that they worked through the night using cranes to pluck injured survivors from the wreckage after the fatal crash late Wednesday in West Java's Sumedang district.
The transportation ministry said the bus was carrying junior high school students and some parents and that 39 people had survived.
Authorities said they were probing the accident's cause.
The bus was returning to the town of Subang from a religious pilgrimage site in West Java.
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Traffic accidents are common in the Southeast Asian archipelago, where vehicles are often old and poorly maintained and road rules regularly flouted.
In late 2019, at least 35 people were killed when a bus plunged into a ravine on the island of Sumatra.
Photographs from the scene showed the bus had ended up on its side with rescue workers trying to search for any more victims.
Supriyono, a local search and rescue agency official, said later evacuation efforts had been completed and survivors taken to a nearby hospital.
The exact cause of the crash was not immediately clear, though the ministry said there were initial indications that the vehicle’s road worthiness tests were not up to date.
