Bus plunges off Albanian cliff killing 12 people

A bus carrying university students on a pre-graduation trip toppled off a mountain cliff in southern Albania yesterday, killing 12 people and injuring another 21, authorities said.

University officials said two buses had been taking 75 third-year language and literature students and three professors from Aleksander Xhuvani University in the city of Elbasan on a trip to the southern city of Saranda.

One bus carrying 33 people fell 80 meters off the road near the town of Himare, 220km south of the capital, Tirana, police spokeswoman Klejda Plangarica said.