Local authorities reported on Monday that a bus in northern Peru had crashed into a ravine from a mountain road, resulting in at least 23 fatalities and over a dozen injuries.

The incident occurred late Sunday on a potholed dirt road in the Andean region of Cajamarca, "and the bus fell into an abyss" about 200 meters (650 feet) deep, according to local official Olga Bobadilla, who spoke with RPP radio.

According to municipal official Jaime Herrera, some of the people on board were carried away by the water when the bus carrying more than fifty people pulled over on the side of a river.


Firefighters and rescue personnel were on the collision scene, where the injured were taken to a hospital via helicopter.

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 Desperate for news of their loved ones, scores of people gathered at a police station near the accident scene, many of them crying. The Celendin municipality declared 48 hours of mourning. 

Peruvian roads are notorious for accidents because of excessive speeding, bad road conditions, a lack of signage, and lax enforcement of traffic laws.

In the past year, there were over 3,100 traffic-related deaths nationwide. Whether the bus was roadworthy is being looked into by the authorities.