At least 14 people were killed and five others injured on Thursday when a minibus plunged off a roadway into a ravine in northern Peru.
Ricardo Chilon, the head of institutional communications for the San Juan municipality, said that the incident took place more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) north of Lima in the Cajamarca region, reports AFP/BSS.
Police and fire crews arrived at the crash site outside San Juan to recover the victims’ bodies, which included the driver and a child, according to Chilon.
The vehicle was carrying 19 people from the San Juan district to Ciudad de Dios when the accident occurred. Fire Department official Edson Roman said, “The rescue operation is very difficult for us. The vehicle is wedged in a ravine.” He mentioned that six bodies had yet to be recovered.
While the cause of the crash is currently under investigation, road accidents are frequent in Peru, often attributed to poor road conditions, a lack of police enforcement, and human error primarily involving speeding. Official figures indicate that more than 3,000 people were killed on the country’s roads last year.
