20 People killed in Mexico bus crash

Mexico City, Jan 11: At least 20 people were killed on Sunday when a bus plummeted off a road and into a ravine in Mexico’s Gulf Coast state of Veracruz.

Another 25 people were injured in the accident, which occurred around 9 a.m., Xinhua reported.

A total of 45 people were aboard the vehicle, which is believed to have been speeding when it hit the side barriers of a bridge and fell into the river below.

Images of the scene showed the bus lying in shallow water, as a rescue team attended to victims along the bank.

“The rescue on the Atoyac river has been concluded,” the secretary of civil protection for the state, Yolanda Gutierrez Carlin, said via twitter. “The total toll is 20 people dead, 25 injured.”

The bus, belonging to the Paso del Toro line, was carrying members of a football team and their relatives along the road connecting the cities of Camaron and Cordoba.   (IANS)