Bus crash in Ecuador’s Amazon region kills 18

QUITO, Ecuador — A bus crash in Ecuador's Amazon region killed 18 people and left 25 injured, the ECU911 emergency service said Sunday.

ECU911, quoting national police officials, said the bus crashed and overturned after "losing its traffic lane." It did not elaborate.

The accident occurred late Saturday on a highway near the city of Sucua, in Morona Santiago province near the border with Peru.

The bus was traveling between the provincial capital of Macas and the city of Loja in the Andes, also near the Peruvian border.

ECU911 said the injured were taken to hospitals in Macas and Sucua. The dead were transported to the morgue in Sucua.

Traffic accidents are a leading cause of death in Ecuador. — Agence France-Presse