Bus driving through a mountain pass and carrying scores of students from Mexico’s school of medicine crashed, killing at least 19 people.
The bodies of the victims were pulled from the wreckage of the bus in Oaxaca state’s Puebla de Molinal, at an altitude of 2,300 metres (7,830ft), Governor Francisco Vega y Léon told a press conference. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
The students’ school in a town of López del Rio, in the central state of central Oaxaca, was scheduled to hold a ceremony on Friday, but the group had all gone to the mountains before they went on the bus trip, which was an annual event.
Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, expressed his condolences. He said on Twitter: “My solidarity, closeness and regret for those who lost their lives in the tragedy that happened at the National School of Medicine. My support goes to their families.”
The accident happened on a bend in the road in Puebla de Molinal, Guerrero state, in central Mexico. The bus went off the road and into the side of a valley. It skidded down a steep embankment and struck a steep bank, said Puebla state civil protection director Alfredo Castillo.
Castillo said at least six people were missing and people were trying to recover them, while the rest of the passengers were seriously injured and in hospital.
The state governor said the students were returning from the party scene in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state. Dozens of wrecked vehicles were scattered across the road, and an overturned lorry was stuck in the embankment.