11 Dead as Bus Plunges Off Cliff in Peru

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Eleven people including four children were killed early Thursday and 22 others were injured, several critically, when their bus drove off a cliff in central Peru, police said.

"At the moment we have reports of 11 people dead after the bus fell 200 meters (660 feet) into a ravine," police officer Luis Diaz of Matucana, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of the capital Lima, told AFP.

The driver, who was among those killed, lost control of the bus while trying to negotiate a curve on the country's central highway, Diaz said.

Most of the injured were children in critical condition and were taken to hospitals in Lima.

Road accidents are common in mountainous Peru.

Officials said 2,852 people died in traffic accidents last year and nearly 50,000 were wounded.