Peru bus crash death toll at 48

Jan. 3 (UPI) -- At least 48 people died Tuesday in Peru when a bus went over a cliff on a rocky beach north of Lima, authorities said.

Out of the 57 passengers, six people were hospitalized, said Lewis Mejia, a top Peruvian fire official. Three others were still missing on Wednesday.

The bus was struck by a tractor trailer shortly before noon along a stretch of road called Curva del Diablo, meaning The Devil's Bend in English, on the Pan-American Highway.

"It's very sad for us as a country to suffer an accident of this magnitude," Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said in a statement.

According to a preliminary investigation, both vehicles were traveling at a high rate of speed at the time of the crash, Transportation Minister Bruno Giuffra said.