Bodies of 49 recovered from Brazil bus crash
Rio de Janeiro: The bodies of 49 people have been recovered from the wreckage of a tour bus that plunged into a densely wooded ravine in southern Brazil, authorities said yesterday.
Firefighters pulled the victims from the twisted metal of the bus in the 400-metre ravine, off the side of one of the dangerous roads in the municipality of Campo Alegre. They were taken to a nearby morgue.
Among the dead are the driver and eight children, the regional government press office said.
Ten people were taken to the hospital, but their conditions were not immediately known.
Government official Santa Catarina said yesterday morning that the vehicle was likely carrying 59 people. The bus was supposed to be carrying 50 people, authorities said.
Several ambulances and a helicopter were dispatched to the area and recovery efforts were set to resume yesterday afternoon.
Authorities said on Saturday the chance of finding any more survivors was slim.
Investigators will study the crash site and then the bus will be removed from the area. There was no reports that foreign nationals were on board the bus.
According to witnesses the driver lost control of the bus on a downhill turn. Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the crash. Several drivers stopped to assist the injured before authorities arrived, local press reported.
The bus was from a tourism company that covers a 300km route between Uniao da Vitoria and Guaratuba on the coast of Santa Catarina.
Nearly a hundred rescue workers descended on the crash site, but the difficult terrain and night fall complicated the work.
Accidents are frequent on this winding rural road. Sixty-six people were killed on it in the last five years, reported newspaper O Estado de S Paulo.
The Dona Francisca mountains in the south of the country attract thousands of tourists a year due its largely untouched forest and vegetation. Two kilometers from the crash site was a popular lookout point in the area. Santa Catarina last had a crash nearing this size in 2007, which left 27 dead. In 1999 another crash killed 35.
AFP
