At least 25 dead after school bus veers off road and plunges 100ft into ravine in Cape Verde

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At least 25 dead after school bus veers off road and plunges 100ft into ravine in Cape Verde

Daily Mail · 32 minutes ago

At least 25 people, most of them teenagers, have died after a school bus carrying 32 passengers left the road and plunged around 100 feet into a ravine on Cape Verde's volcanic island of Fogo. The bus was travelling along the winding, mountainous Campanas de Cima route back to São Filipe after taking students on an excursion to Cha das Caldeiras, a village inside the crater of the Pico do Fogo volcano. The disaster has prompted an official mourning period and a government investigation, as authorities work to establish what caused the vehicle to leave the road.

Most victims were secondary school pupils from Curral Grande and Ponta Verde, and the driver, who had organised the trip himself as an annual tradition, was also killed. Around a dozen survivors were taken to São Francisco de Assis Regional Hospital, with four listed in serious condition, while seven bodies were buried early on Sunday owing to their condition. President José Maria Pereira Neves called it a "great catastrophe" and planned to visit Fogo, while the São Filipe Municipal Council declared two days of mourning and cancelled linked religious festivities for Our Lady of Light.

  • School bus crash in Cape Verde kills at least 25, mostly teenagers.
  • Bus of 32 fell 100ft into ravine on Fogo island.
  • Driver among dead; two days of official mourning declared.

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