At least 15 people were killed and 16 others injured when a bus carrying local tourists plunged nearly 1,000 feet (300 metres) in Sri Lanka’s mountainous Ella area, police confirmed on Friday.
The accident occurred late Thursday as the group was returning from a holiday in the hill country, about 130 kilometres east of Colombo.
According to police reports, the bus struck another vehicle before crashing through guardrails and careening off the road into a steep valley.
The incident marks Sri Lanka’s deadliest road crash since May, when 23 passengers lost their lives in Kotmale.
The South Asian nation, home to 22 million people, has one of the world’s highest rates of traffic fatalities, recording an average of 3,000 road deaths annually. Its winding and narrow mountain roads are particularly notorious for accidents.
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