34 killed in mountain bus plunge

A bus crashed off a mountain road and toppled into a ravine in eastern El Salvador today, killing 34 people and injuring 24 others, officials said.

The bus left the community of Guatajiagua and was heading to hot-water springs popular with tourists near the border with neighbouring Honduras.

The crash occurred on a two-lane highway outside the village of Nacaspilo, 80 miles northeast of the capital, San Salvador.

A spokesman for local fire authorities said: “It’s a mountainous zone that’s very dangerous because of the cliffs.”

The bus skidded off the road and fell into an 82-foot valley, killing seven children and 21 adults instantly.

Eugenia de Torres, a doctor at a medical clinic in Ciudad Barrios, 10 miles southeast of where the crash occurred, said everyone onboard was killed or injured and that six died en route to the hospital.

Some of the injured were in a “grave condition”.