six people died and two more were injured after a bus fell from a bridge into the waters of the Lérez river in Galicia, in northwestern Spain, local authorities said this Sunday.
The accident occurred on Saturday shortly before 9:30 p.m. local time on a bridge in the municipality of Cerdedo-Cotobadenear the border with Portugal, and of the eight people who were traveling on the bus, two were able to be rescued alive: the driver of the vehicle, in his sixties, and a woman, reported AFP.
“Rescue teams confirm that all the people who were missing were rescued“, indicated the Galician Emergency Service on Twitter.
The other passengers were found lifeless, according to the rescue teams, who posted on Twitter an image of the submerged bus at the bottom of a ravine in a river between tree trunks.
The first two victims were found near the remains of the vehicle, a few hours after the accident, while the bodies of the other four people were recovered in the Lérez river, where the tragedy occurred, according to the Civil Guard.
According to the Civil Guard, five Spaniards from Galicia are among the deceased, including a mother and her son.
The sixth fatality is a woman of Peruvian nationality who took care of an elderly man in Cerdedo-Cotobade.
The rescue operations were complicated by the intense rainy falls during the night, which caused an increase in the flow of the river, where the bus fell, but also due to the relief of the area.
Meanwhile, an investigation was opened to determine the causes of the accident, which still remain unknown.
“We still don’t know the causes with certainty,” but “it is true that the weather conditions were very bad yesterday (Saturday) night,” confirmed the president of the Galician community, Alfonso Rueda.
According to the spokesman for the Civil Guard, the bus driver has experience behind the wheel and, in addition, tested negative for alcohol and drugs.
UPDATE: they locate the eighth member of the passenger of the bus accident in #CerdedoCotobade.
Therefore, 6 dead and 2 injured.
The emergency teams confirm that all the people who were missing were rescued.
Thus, moitos begin to withdraw from the point. pic.twitter.com/lp4auCl5jd
— 112Galicia (@112Galicia) December 25, 2022
