12 dead in bus plunge

AT least 12 people have been killed and another 27 injured when a bus plunged down a ravine in southern Ecuador, emergency management officials say. Sources said that the accident occurred at 4:25am local time on Tuesday on the Balsas-Machala highway.

The cause of the crash is not yet known, according to the source.

The accident occurred two days after another interprovincial bus turned over on the highway between the Ecuadorean cities of Cuenca and Quito, leaving five dead.