Bus was carrying people visiting their loved ones jailed in Monterroso, Galacia after a bus plunged off a 240 foot bridge into a river in northwestern Spain’s Galicia region last night, officials have said.
Emergency services said two corpses were removed from the bus. Two others – including the bus driver – were rescued and taken to hospital.
Spain’s Civil Guard later said three more bodies were found earlier today.
Officials believe there were eight or nine passengers on board. On Twitter, the emergency services said: ‘There could have been more people inside the bus’ and posted a photo of the vehicle in turbulent waters.
The horrific accident took place ‘at a spot with a steep gradient’, making access difficult, according to a Civil Guard spokesman in the city of Pontevedra, some 30 kilometres from the site of the tragedy.
The Civil Guard said the bus driver had tested negative for alcohol.
The authorities said a motorist first raised the alarm after noticing a safety rail on the bridge had been damaged. Rescuers then received a call from the bus, which helped them find the wreckage.
Meanwhile, rescue operations had to be suspended overnight due to bad weather but resumed this morning.
Authorities said rescue operations were also complicated by the heavy rain during the night, causing the level of the Lerez river, where the bus fell, to rise sharply.
They said the cause of the accident was not yet known but that the poor weather could have played a role.
‘We do not yet know the causes with certainty’ but ‘it is true that the weather conditions were very bad that night’, said Alfonso Rueda, the president of the Galicia region.
