Twenty people died and fifteen were injured when a bus overturned on the Pan-American highway, in southwestern Colombia, due to an apparent mechanical failure, police said.
“Unfortunately we have a balance of 20 dead people,” Captain Albertland Agudelo, of the traffic police of the department of Nariño, told the press.
The bus, which covered the route between the port of Tumaco and the city of Cali, had an accident at dawn after losing its brakes.
The other 15 occupants of the vehicle were injured, according to the official report.
Among the injured there are two minors, a three-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy.
“The hypothesis (which) is under investigation is that it apparently suffered a mechanical failure”added officer Agudelo.
The accident occurred in an area of difficult visibility due to fog. Police units, ambulances and the fire department responded to the emergency.
According to a preliminary report, the driver lost control after coming out of a curve.
The vehicle, with capacity for 41 occupants, overturned and was left on the edge of a precipice, according to images obtained by AFP.
For more than nine hours, the rescuers worked to straighten the bus and rescue the bodies and the wounded, who were transferred to various health centers.
“Within the preliminary investigations we have the hypothesis that the vehicle suffers from mechanical failures in the brake system”Colonel Oscar Lamprea, director in charge of traffic and transportation, said in a message sent to the media.
