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Bus plunges off cliff in Peru, kills 51
01:13 - Source: TV Peru

Story highlights

The busload of people were traveling to a celebration in the Santa Teresa district

An unspecified number of children were aboard

Authorities are still recovering bodies from the cliff, an official says

Lima, Peru CNN  — 

A bus carrying 51 people, including children, veered off a cliff in Peru Saturday, killing everyone aboard, an official said.

The passengers, who included many members of one family, were traveling to a celebration in the Santa Teresa district, said Juan Carlos Valverde, the under attorney general in the Peruvian province of La Convencion, where the crash happened.

An unspecified number of children were among those killed when the bus went off the 200-meter-high (656-foot-high) cliff, he said.

Officials earlier said 52 people were aboard but later revised the death toll to 51, saying a boy who was supposed to be on the trip never boarded the bus.

No further details were immediately available, he said.

CNN’s Nelson Quinones contributed to this report.