Seven dead after bus plunges off bridge in Spain with just two survivors

Two survivors - the 63-year-old driver and a female passenger - were pulled out of the Lérez river by firefighters following the horror crash on Christmas Eve
Sami Quadri27 December 2022

Seven people died after a passenger bus careered off a bridge and plunged into an overflowing river in north-western Spain.

Two survivors - the 63-year-old driver and a female passenger - were pulled out of the Lérez river by firefighters following the horror crash on Christmas Eve.

The driver tested negative for alcohol and drugs, a police spokesperson said.

The river’s strong current and high flow due to heavy rains sweeping the Galicia region hampered efforts to retrieve the bodies.

The coach from the company Monbus was travelling between the cities of Lugo and Vigo on Saturday night and had stopped at a penitentiary centre near the site of the accident.

It skidded off a straight road on the bridge for reasons that remain unclear and plunged into the water in a fall of at least 40m (131ft) at around 2130 local time “(30 GMT).

The regional president of Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, pointed to the "very bad" weather conditions as one of the possible causes of the accident.

Rescue teams had initially ended their search near the village of Pedre on Sunday after finding six bodies.

But they resumed the operation after a surviving passenger told them their friend who they had travelled with was not on the official list of victims.

The woman’s body was spotted by helicopter in the river on Monday morning.

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