Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/Carlos Orozco Garcia
This is the moment schoolchildren are rescued from a hillside after the bus they were travelling went careering down the slope and the driver has now seemingly disappeared.
The accident happened when the bus was carrying students from the Nuestra Senora de Lourdes School in the district of Surquillo in the Peruvian capital of Lima on a trip to the city of Tarma in the province of the same name.
The bus reportedly careered off the road in the Chicla District in the province of Huarochiri in the Lima Region of Peru and fell 100 metres down a hillside.
The footage shows emergency services rescuing a girl on a stretcher who seems to be badly injured. On member of the emergency services team is heard saying: “We need to ask her which area is hurting her most.”
Video Credit: CEN
According to local media, one adult who was identified as Rosa Conde Alva, 55, and a 17-year-old child died in the accident while another 13 students and another adult identified as Margarita Medina Villa, 49, were injured and transferred to different hospitals in the nearby city of Chosica.
General Jose Lavalle from the National Police in Peru told local reporters the driver was not found at the scene of the accident and he might have escaped.
Lavalle told local reporters: “We are going to move the debris of the vehicle to see if he is there (the driver) or he might have left the place. Apparently he has no authorisation to take passengers on interprovincial routes…”
The Attorney Office of the Public Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) reported on their Twitter account that they will press charges against the owner of the bus Henry Nunez Palacios for the crimes of homicide and injuries against the passengers.
Local authorities are still investigating if Nunez Palacios was also the driver of the bus as he has not been found yet. If local authorities prove he was the driver the MTC might cancel his driving licence and would also press charges against him for not helping the victims.
According to the Health Minister Zulema Tomas the condition of the injured people is stable. Some of them suffered several fractures whilst others suffered bruising.
The videos show the emergency services working to attend to the victims on the hillside.
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