18 passengers killed in Peru mountain bus crash

A bus plunged into a ravine in the Peruvian Andes on Friday, killing at least 18 passengers, a health official said.

The bus, which landed on its roof next to a river, was carrying more than 60 people from the capital Lima to the jungle city of La Merced when it veered off a winding, narrow road, local media reported.

"So far we've recorded 18 fatalities from the accident," a spokesperson for health services of the central city of Tarma, 240 kilometres (149 miles) east of Lima, told AFP.

The double-decker bus belonging to the company "Expreso Molina Líder Internacional" went off the road and fell down a slope in the district of Palca, Junín region, Junin's health director Clifor Curipaco told reporters.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident.

Initial reports put the death toll at 15, with 30 injured, but three victims died after being taken to a hospital.Two children were among the dead.

Emergency teams were at the scene of the incident. The cause of the crash has not been identified yet.

Videos broadcast on local television showed the bus split in two, while firefighters and police tried to rescue the injured.

It was not the first fatal bus accident in 2025, another bus fell into a river on Jan. 3, leaving six people dead and 32 injured.

Road accidents are a common occurrence in the South American country, due to a combination of speeding and poor road conditions.

Police recorded a total of 3,173 traffic-related deaths last year.

Agencies