BREAKING: Horror bus crash leaves at least 18 dead as rescue mission mounted

At least 18 people have been killed in a bus crash after a double-decker plunged over 160ft into a ravine.

The packed vehicle travelling from Lima, Peru, to the country's Amazon area overturned after it veered off a winding road, with another 48 passengers injured, on Friday. Officials revealed that 15 of the passengers were found dead at the horror scene while three more people died in hospital. A desperate rescue mission was mounted after the horror crash in an attempt to save as many lives as possible.

Officials tragically confirmed that two children were among the dead, when the bus plunged off a highway and landed on it's roof in Peru's Junin region. The bus, owned by Expreso Molina Líder Internacional, was carrying more than 60 people at the time of the crash.

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A health official from the city of Tarma in central Peru, Aldo Tineo, said authorities were in the process of identifying the dead bodies.

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