Four dead and 16 injured after tourist bus crashes near Peru’s Machu Picchu

Twenty people were on the bus as it plunged off a cliff following a trip to the landmark destination

A tourist bus carrying 20 people plunged off the side of a cliff on a section of the Cusco-Quillabamba road network in Peru on Monday evening, leaving four people dead and 16 others injured.

Officials said that the group on board the bus included the driver, two Peruvians, and 17 visitors from other countries. The group was returning from a trip to Machu Picchu, the landmark Incan citadel high in the Andes Mountains, when the driver lost control of the vehicle in what Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Roberto Sanchez said was a fog. The bus fell roughly 328 feet into a chasm.

The four dead travellers included one Peruvian and three Colombian citizens. The victims of the crash were transported to two medical facilities in Cusco, where they recieved treatment. People Magazine reported that a number of the injured tourists have been discharged, while, as of Monday, at least one other person was in intensive care.

The injured tourists hailed from a wide array of countries, including Israel, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Greece and Argentina.

The crash, which is reportedly being investigated by the National Police of Peru, is the second major crash of its kind in the last month after a minibus drove into a ravine in Junin province.