At least two people died overnight from Saturday to Sunday after a bus fell into a river from a bridge in Cerdedo-Cotobade, Galicia, northwestern Spain, authorities said local. The Galician emergency services said on Twitter that they had recovered the lifeless bodies of two passengers, while the bus would have fallen 75 m.
Two other people, including the bus driver, were rescued and hospitalized. Search operations were interrupted during the night due to bad weather conditions and the sudden rise in the waters of the river due to the rain. The region was on yellow alert, in anticipation of expected heavy rainfall.
Many firefighters are mobilized on the spot to continue the rescue operations. The number of passengers on board the vehicle is estimated “between six and eight”, by the emergency services. “There could be more people inside the bus”, specify the emergency services, which published on social networks an impressive photo seen from the sky of the bus, immersed in a tumultuous stream.
Relatives of prisoners who came to visit them
The emergency services intervention bulletin specifies that they were alerted thanks to two calls, a first at 9:19 p.m. to tell them that one of the road guardrails was “totally destroyed”, before a second call coming from inside the bus reached them, which enabled them to pinpoint the exact location of the accident.
According to the Spanish daily La Vanguardia, the accident occurred while the bus was traveling between Lugo and Vigo. He was bringing back a group of people who had come to visit relatives detained at the Monterroso penitentiary center in central Galicia, according to the daily La Voz de Galicia.