DPA/AFP/Reuters/Buenos Aires
At least 42 Argentinian border guards died in a bus accident in the northern province of Salta, broadcaster C5N reported, citing local authorities.
The bus was part of a caravan of three carrying the officers.
Passengers on the other two buses were the first people on site to attempt to save the officers trapped in the wreckage, officials said.
The bus plunged 20m off a bridge and landed wheels up in a dry riverbed, reports said.
An initial investigation found one of the vehicle’s front tyres burst, a prosecutor told media.
The accident occurred near the town of Rosario de la Frontera, some 1,100km north of Buenos Aires, and on a road said to be filled with potholes.
The guards were travelling to Argentina’s border with Bolivia.
President Mauricio Macri, who took office four days ago, promised yesterday to improve the condition of Argentina’s roads.
“The Argentine people must stand with these families,” he said.
“We need to improve our highways so these things don’t keep happening,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference in Buenos Aires province.
The emergency chief for the province of Salta, Francisco Marinaro, told a local radio station that nine of the border guards were hospitalised, four of them in serious condition.
“We have 42 dead so far,” he said in a TV interview from the scene, where an overturned bus was shown, swarmed with emergency workers.
A local mayor had originally said 20 people were killed in the accident, but the death toll rose as emergency workers recovered bodies from inside the mangled wreckage of the bus.
The mayor, Gustavo Solis of Rosario de la Frontera, said the road where the accident occurred is known to be in poor condition.
“Those of us who know the area try to avoid driving at night,” he said.
The accident occurred in a mountainous area with dense forests.
Security Minister Patricia Bullrich has travelled to the site of the accident.
Border security has become a hot issue in Argentina as the country has emerged as part of a route used for smuggling Andean cocaine to Europe and for human traffickers sending Syrian refugees to the Western Hemisphere.