Bogota - Colombia's treacherous Andean mountain highways claimed another 18 victims yesterday when a passenger bus plunged into a deep ravine, killing all but one of those aboard, authorities said.
A Red Cross official in Caldas province cited the lone survivor, Mr Jose Antonio Garces, as saying the driver lost control after swerving to avoid a boulder. The vehicle tumbled about 820 feet (250 metres) before coming to a halt in the rain-swollen Cauca river.
The 18 bodies, including those of two children, were removed from the wreckage early yesterday, rescue officials said. Fifteen people died in a similar bus accident last week in south-west Cauca province, on another notoriously dangerous stretch of the country's Andean mountain roads.