Disasters & Accidents

Rescuers find 7th body after bus plunges into Spanish river

Pontevedra, Spain, Dec 26 (EFE).- Search and rescue teams on Monday found a seventh body at the site where a bus plunged into a river in northwest Spain on Christmas Eve, authorities said.

Only two people survived the accident — the driver and a female passenger.

The search had been concluded Sunday with the discovery of a sixth body but was resumed after the son of the surviving passenger told authorities that one more person had been traveling on the bus.

The number of passengers was initially unclear since the estimated figure was given by the bus driver based on his recollection of the stops he had made before the accident.

The vehicle veered off a bridge and plummeted 75 meters (246 feet) into the Lérez river late Saturday.

Six of the confirmed fatal victims were of Spanish nationality and one was Peruvian.

Three of the bodies were located inside the vehicle and the others were found in different sections of the Lérez river.

The bus was en route to the city of Pontevedra in Spain’s Galicia region.

Authorities were alerted to the crash, which took place just after 9pm, by a motorist who noticed the guard rails at the side of the road had been smashed, but who could not locate the vehicle in the river.

Soon after, the emergency services received a phone call from someone inside the bus, which allowed the rescue mission to get underway. EFE

aer-am/aef/jt

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