At least 23 die in Peru after bus crashes into river

LIMA (Reuters) - At least 23 people died after a bus fell down a slope into a river on Sunday evening in the Andean mountains of northern Peru, a prosecutor told local media on Monday morning.

The accident occurred on Sunday night when the bus was heading to the town of Sorochuco, Olga Bobadilla, provincial prosecutor for the Cajamarca region, told local radio station RPP.

"Information is still being collected because the accident occurred at night on a fairly rugged road, an unpaved road, where the bus fell into an abyss toward the river," Bobadilla said.

Local media outlets reported that the bus was traveling from the nearby town of Celendin, which announced three days of mourning in a statement shared by the local government.

Accidents are relatively common along Peru's precarious roads, with around two dozen people dying in a crash last September and at least 24 dying when a bus plunged off a cliff in January 2023.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Kylie Madry)