Bus plunge kills 29

Photo: The Canadian Press

Bus passengers were screaming in horror as the driver repeatedly stepped on the apparently malfunctioning brakes before plunging into a deep ravine in the northern Philippines, leaving at least 29 people dead Tuesday in one of the country's deadliest accidents in years, a survivor and officials said.

The rest of the more than 50 passengers were retrieved by rescuers who struggled with ropes to descend down the 24-metre ravine to reach the wreckage in Nueva Ecija province's Carranglan town, said disaster-response officer Mark Raymond Cano.

Many of the passengers were hospitalized with serious injuries and parents separated from their children in the confusion, officials said.

TV footage showed a line of rescuers and villagers, some holding on to a rope to climb up on a grassy slope with a victim on a stretcher. A throng of villagers waited in a clearing above them to help pull the victim to safety.

Cano said a preliminary investigation showed that the bus "lost its brakes and plunged down the ravine."

Passenger Ralph Raymond Grajo said he saw the driver repeatedly stepping on the malfunctioning brakes as the wayward bus was speeding along a downhill road. The driver attempted to steer the bus to the right, but roadside houses made him veer back in the direction of the ravine as horrified passengers watched, Grajo said.