Four Mexicans were injured in a crash on Monday when a tourist bus plunged off a road near the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru, the Mexican government said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said on social media that four Mexicans sustained “multiple fractures” when the bus in which they were traveling crashed.
#Urgente Bus de la empresa Consettur que traslada turistas de Machu Picchu Pueblo al Parque Arqueológico se despistó hoy en la carretera Hiram Bingham. pic.twitter.com/AzugnsZErB
— Cusco Post 🇵🇪 – Noticias del Cusco (@cuscopost) September 16, 2024
The bus went off the edge of a winding mountain road near Machu Picchu on Monday, amid foggy conditions.
At least five other tourists were also injured, but no deaths were immediately reported. Those injured were taken to a nearby medical facility for treatment.
In a video posted to social media by the journalist Lourdes Mendoza, a Mexican who was on the bus said that three other Mexicans were seriously injured.
Speaking from a clinic, Jorge Polanco said that those three people — among whom is his wife — had broken their legs and hips.
“They don’t know how to treat them,” added Polanco, who was also injured, according to Mendoza’s post.
The news website Perú 21 reported that approximately 32 foreign and Peruvian nationals were on board the bus when it crashed onto a lower section of a winding road on Monday morning.
The bus was returning to the town of Aguas Calientes from Machu Picchu when the accident occurred, according to the bus company Consettur MachuPicchu.
According to witnesses cited by Perú 21, the bus driver’s sight was impeded by fog.
The SRE said that the Mexican Embassy in Peru was in contact with the injured Mexicans and would provide them with the assistance they require.
AYUDA A los heridos en el accidente en #Perú donde hay mexicanos los están tratando de trasladarlos en un tren
“No están organizados , nos saben qué hacer “ me dice Jorge Polanco https://t.co/F3kYwtMxiU pic.twitter.com/DOVIyvfW8l— Lourdes mendoza (@lumendoz) September 16, 2024
In another video posted to X by Mendoza, Polanco said that Peruvian authorities were “trying to transport those injured by train,” presumably to a better-equipped hospital.
However, “they’re not organized, no one knows what to do,” he said.
The town of Aguas Calientes is located northwest of the city of Cusco. A train trip between the two destinations takes more than four hours.
At least 25 people were killed in a bus accident in Peru’s Andean Ayacucho region in July, while the same number of people were killed in another bus crash in the South American country’s northern Andean mountains in April.
According to Reuters, “deadly bus accidents are common in Peru, where many buses travel on precarious mountain roads or are driven by inadequately trained drivers.”
With reports from Reforma, El Universal, Perú 21 and AP
