The incident occurred at around 1:50 p.m. when a bus from the company “A Catarinense” that left Florianópolis (Santa Catarina) on Monday at six in the afternoon bound for Foz de Iguazú (Paraná) lost control and plunged into a ravine early this morning on the BR277 route, in the municipality of Fernandes Pinheiro, for reasons that are still unknown.
It is estimated that among the 54 passengers traveling on the bus, there were at least 14 Argentine citizens. There were also Paraguayans, French and Germans, according to the fire chief of the Paraná municipality of Irati, Carla Spak.
In addition to the deaths, the accident left a balance of 22 injured people who were transferred to nearby health centers in the central region of Paraná, the AFP agency reported. Diplomatic officials traveled to Irati and the hospital to find out what had happened and facilitate the necessary procedures.
Meanwhile, the unharmed people and those who have already been discharged are traveling to Foz de Iguazú in a bus that left for that southern Brazilian city. They also reported that another bus will leave before the end of the day.
Images released by the police show the overturned bus on the right bank of highway BR-277, which made rescue tasks difficult. On Monday, another accident involving a bus carrying a youth soccer team left four people dead, including three teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17, and 29 injured in Minas Gerais, in the southeast of the country.
