Philippine bus accident kills at least 10 people, mostly Iranian tourists

Philippine bus crash kills 10, mostly Iranians

CEBU, Philippines — A tourist bus packed with Iranian nationals plunged into a ravine Sunday while negotiating a mountain road in the central Philippines, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 30 others, officials said.

The bus, carrying dozens of mostly Iranian tourists, apparently suffered a brake failure then plummeted into a 100-foot (30-meter) ravine in Balamban town in Cebu province, killing its Filipino driver and a tourist guide and several passengers, police Senior Superintendent Erson Digal said.

At least 10 people, mostly Iranians and including children, were killed in the accident, said Digal, who was at the accident scene.

Villagers and police pulled at least 10 bodies from the mangled bus wreckage at the rocky bottom of the ravine. Several seriously injured passengers were brought to hospitals, Digal told The Associated Press.

“There are at least 10 bodies laid before me now,” he said by telephone, adding he was checking reports that a number of other passengers died in hospitals.

Many of the Iranian victims were medical students in Cebu, a bustling commercial and tourism center 350 miles (560 kilometers) southeast of Manila. They were identified by relatives and through their IDs, Digal said.

Regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Wilson Feria said four air force helicopters ferried the dead and at least 31 injured passengers to a military camp in Cebu city, where they were picked up by ambulance vans then brought to hospitals.

An unspecified number of passengers were still pinned in the wreckage, Digal said.

A Japanese shipbuilding company in Balamban has offered to send a crane to help lift the bus so those pinned underneath and in the wreckage can be retrieved, Feria said.

Poorly maintained vehicles and roads, along with inadequate safety signs, railings, training and weak traffic law enforcement, are blamed for many deadly accidents in the Philippines.