4 Apr 2013

24 die when a PNG bus plunges down a cliff

1:38 pm on 4 April 2013

Twenty-four people have been killed and two others critically injured after a bus rolled off a cliff face in Papua New Guinea's Western Highlands Province.

The group was travelling from Baiyer to Mt Hagen to pick up the coffin holding a dead tribesman when the 25-seater bus ran off the road and plunged more than 50 metres down a cliff face on Wednesday.

Seventeen men, six women and a five year-old girl were killed in the crash.

The National newspaper reportss that nine people survived the accident with two of those in a critical condition.