An overcrowded passenger bus carrying Mexican tourists crashed
through a metal barrier, plunging off a 250m cliff into eastern
Mexico on Monday, killing at least 63 people, including 10
children.
The accident, on a steep stretch of highway linking the capital
with the Gulf of Mexico port city of Veracruz, was one of the worst
traffic crashes in Mexico in recent years.
"It broke the barrier and went down a ravine," civil protection
official Ranulfo Marquez said.
The bus, equipped to hold 46 seated passengers, was carrying 71,
some of whom were standing up, said Federal Preventive Police Cmdr.
Reinaldo Ascencio Cavazos. He said the owner of the bus was
detained for questioning. Ascencio said the passengers belonged to
a religious group known as the Light of the World.
Rescuers ended their search for victims after recovering 63
bodies, state official Rosa Elvira Gonzalez said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2006)
