Montenegro Bus Crash: Tourist Bus Falls Off Zdrijelo Bridge, Death Toll Climbs To 18 [PHOTOS]
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A bus crash in Montenegro has killed at least 18 people and injured at least 32 others. The bus was full of Romanian tourists when it fell off a bridge into a gorge on Sunday, AP reports.
"Sadly, this death toll could climb further," Montenegro Interior Minister Rasko Konjevic told Reuters when there were 13 reported deaths.
Police said the bus swayed off the Zdrijelo Bridge and plunged 130 feet into a gorge in the Moraca River, about 30 miles north of the nation’s capital Podgorica. Konjevic said there were 46 passengers on the bus, which was traveling from Romania to Montenegro's capital, Podgorica, AP reports.
A Reuters photographer said the bus was lying on its side on an outcrop 90 feet down the gorge. Police and rescue workers were retrieving dead and injured passengers. A helicopter was also used to rescue victims.
On Monday, Romania announced it would be sending medically equipped airplanes to transport crash survivors back home. The names of the victims have yet to be released.
"The driver drove a little too fast and the bus slid," Carmen Dorobet, a crash survivor, told Montenegrin media, according to Agence France-Presse.
A 12-year-old Montenegrin boy was also reportedly injured in the incident as he was struck by the bus. He was hospitalized and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, doctors said.
The fatal fall occurred during a rainstorm on a winding road that's notoriously dangerous for its slippery-when-wet conditions. In 2006, the site was the scene of a similar incident when a train derailed and skidded 50 yards down an embankment. That crash killed 41 people and injured 180, CNN reports.
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