15 dead in Peru accident

LIMA - An overloaded bus drove off a mountain road and plunged 500 metres into a ravine, killing at least 15 people in southern Peru, a media report said Monday.

The newspaper El Comercio reported that the bus was licensed for 48 passengers but was carrying nearly 70 at the time of the accident Sunday in the Cusco region in the Peruvian Andes.

The steep mountainside was complicating the recovery of bodies from the wreckage, and death toll could still rise, authorities said.