Spain: 6 dead as bus falls into river | Tragedy on Christmas Eve

Six people were killed when a bus overturned in a river in Galicia (northwest Spain) last Christmas Day. Two others survived the road accident.

On Sunday afternoon, emergency crews called off rescue operations for victims after finding a sixth casualty and accepting the number of people on board given by relatives.

Since the incident, the dead have been found since last night, a third body was found inside the bus early this Sunday, and the other three were found hours later in the river downstream from where the incident took place.

Reports from emergency services said the two people who were rescued alive, the driver and a passenger, were among the casualties.

As the river was high and the current was fast and the vehicle’s water level had already reached the ceiling, the rescue operations were called off at dawn due to the poor conditions. this morning

The bus was stopped at Monterosso Prison (Lugo) on the Lugo-Vigo route and plunged into the river after it veered off the road on a bridge on Saturday.

The Leres River, where the bus fell, swelled above the overflow threshold and this continued during the rescue operation, which was difficult at night.

The bus fell to a height of about 75 meters, and the first warning came from a privateer who, looking over the bridge and unable to see anything, saw the safety barrier destroyed. Minutes later, a call came from inside the bus, describing what had happened and allowing the rescue operation to begin.

Firefighters worked at the scene of the accident, they lowered themselves from the bridge with ropes and safety ropes, and then they joined the personnel of the Department of Emergency, Civil Defense, Civil Guard of Transport and the Ministry of Transport.

The head of Galicia’s regional government, Alfonso Ruta, today pointed to “extremely bad” weather conditions as one of the possible causes of the crash on the straight.