21 killed, 14 injured after bus with 50 passengers skids off cliff in Sri Lanka

A passenger bus skidded off a cliff in Sri Lanka’s tea-growing hill country on Sunday, killing 21 people and injuring at least 14 others, an official said. The accident occurred in the early hours of Sunday near the town of Kotmale, about 140 kilometres (86 miles) east of Colombo, the capital, in a mountainous area of central Sri Lanka, police said.

Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways Prasanna Gunasena told the media that 21 people died in the accident and 14 others are being treated in hospitals. Local television showed the bus lying overturned at the bottom of a precipice while workers and others helped remove injured people from the rubble.

The driver was injured and among those admitted to the hospital for treatment. At the time of the accident, nearly 50 people were travelling on the bus. The bus was operated by a state-run bus company, police said.

Deadly bus accidents are common in Sri Lanka, especially in the mountainous regions, often due to reckless driving and poorly maintained and narrow roads.