At least 14 people were killed when a minibus veered off a mountain road in northern Peru and tumbled into a ravine, one of the country's deadliest road accidents in recent months.
The vehicle, run by a company called La Veloz, was carrying 19 passengers from the district of San Juan toward Ciudad de Dios, in the Andean region of Cajamarca, when it left the road and fell into a ravine reported to be around 500 metres deep, Al Jazeera reported. Fourteen people died and five were injured, according to the state news agency Xinhua, which cited local authorities.
A difficult rescue
The driver and at least one child were among the dead, rescue officials said. The five survivors were taken to the regional hospital in Cajamarca for treatment.
Emergency crews worked into the night to recover the victims, hampered by the depth of the fall and the position of the wreckage. A local official quoted the passenger toll at 14 dead and five hurt, and said the vehicle had come to rest in a hard-to-reach part of the ravine, slowing the operation.
Investigators were also examining a discrepancy between the passenger list and the number of people found at the scene, a common complication in accidents involving informal or intercity minibus services.
Cause under investigation
Authorities have not yet established why the minibus left the road. Early reports suggested it lost control on a curve, but prosecutors and forensic teams have opened a formal inquiry both to identify the victims and to determine the cause.
Deadly road accidents are frequent in Peru, particularly on the narrow, winding highways that climb through the Andes. Poor road conditions, speeding and uneven enforcement are commonly cited factors, and official figures record thousands of road deaths across the country each year. San Juan lies in a mountainous stretch of Cajamarca, more than 800 kilometres north of the capital, Lima.
The crash adds to a grim toll on Peru's mountain roads, where a single lapse or mechanical failure on an exposed curve can send a vehicle over the edge with little chance of survival for those aboard.
