Cebu: The number of people killed in a tourist bus crash in central Philippines has risen to 21 after an Iranian rushed to hospital was declared dead on arrival.
All the victims, except the Filipino driver who was also the bus owner, were Iranian medical students and doctors. They were identified by relatives and through their IDs. Twenty-six of the injured were brought to hospitals.
The dead, which included two boys, were brought to Cebu's Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes where they were visited by grieving relatives, friends and Iranian Embassy officials, said Edgar Sanchez, the funeral parlor's director.
Cebu Provincial Police Director Erson Digal said on Monday the bus appears to have plunged down a ravine after brake failure. The accident happened in Balamban in Cebu province. Digal did not rule out human error as the cause of the crash.
Army rescuers said nine people appear to be still unaccounted for out of the estimated 55 passengers of the bus, although it remains unclear exactly how many passengers were aboard when it crashed into the deep ravine.
The tourist bus plunged into a ravine on Sunday while negotiating a mountain road in Balamban town in Cebu, killing a Filipino driver and a tourist guide and several passengers, said police Senior Superintendent Erson Digal.
Villagers and police pulled at least 20 bodies from the mangled bus wreckage at the rocky bottom of the ravine.
Witnesses said the bus was running at high speed before plunging into the ravine.
Cebu Provincial Police Director Digal said that authorities from the Iranian Embassy are coordinating with the a local funeral parlour for the possible cremation of the bodies before they are brought back to Iran.
The group of Iranian doctors and medical students were headed for a resort in Tuburan town when the bus lost its brakes.
Survivor Saleh Hossainkhani, 26, said the bus was speeding down a descending road when the brakes malfunctioned, the newspaper SunStar Cebu reported.
"Instead of turning left, he went straight," SunStar Cebu quoted Hossainkhani as saying.
Witness Elmer Navaja told the newspaper that the bus was traveling at a very high speed and that he saw sparks at the wheels before the bus hit the railings, and then he heard passengers screaming.
The bus first hit an electric post then fell down the ravine, Navaja said.
