JAKARTA | At least 27 people, including middle school students, have died in the crash of a bus carrying pilgrims to the Indonesian island of Java, authorities said Thursday.
All night long, with the help of cranes, rescuers extracted the survivors of this bus that fell on Wednesday evening in a ravine in Sumedang, a region of West Java.
The bus, carrying 66 people, was traveling on a winding and poorly lit road when it fell into a 20-meter ravine, authorities said, citing 39 survivors.
The victims are children, adults as well as the driver, told AFP Mamang Fatmono, head of Bandung relief.
An investigation was opened to determine the causes of this accident.
The passengers were returning to the city of Subang after making a religious pilgrimage to West Java.
Tragedies are frequent on the roads of the archipelago, due to the dilapidation of vehicles and infrastructure, and a traffic code often very little respected by drivers.
At the end of 2019, at least 35 people had been killed when their bus crashed into a ravine on the island of Sumatra.