At least 25 people, most of them schoolchildren and teenagers, have been killed after a bus plunged into a ravine on Cabo Verde’s Fogo island.
The vehicle was carrying 32 people on a field trip to Cha das Caldeiras, a village inside the crater of the active Pico do Fogo volcano, when it went over a cliff on Saturday.
The private organiser of the annual excursion, believed to have been driving the bus, was also killed, while several survivors suffered injuries of varying severity.
President Jose Maria Pereira Neves described the tragedy as an “irreparable loss,” saying the overwhelming majority of those killed were young people and teenagers.
He joined senior officials at the funeral of 18 victims on Sunday, while others were buried separately. Authorities have declared two days of national mourning as investigators work to establish what caused the deadly crash.
