Tel Aviv - A bus carrying Russian tourists plunged into a
gully near the Israeli resort of Eilat on Tuesday afternoon, killing
at least 26 people and injuring 29, in one of Israel's worst-ever bus
accidents.
Sixteen of the injured were said to be in serious condition, with
some in danger of losing their lives, hospital officials said. Many
had head or chest or abdomen injuries. The tourists had just landed at
Uvda airport, about 40 kilometres north of Eilat.
They were on their way to the resort on the shores of the Gulf of
Aqaba, traveling along a road which snakes along the barren, hilly,
Israel-Sinai border, when the bus plunged 60-metres into the gully.
It was not immediately clear why the bus left the road, but a
witness told Israel Radio that the vehicle was driving 'dangerously.'
He said the accident occurred as the bus attempted to overtake
another vehicle on a sharp bend while traveling at high speed, sending
it into the gully, where it came to a rest lying on its side.
Passengers had come flying out the windows of the vehicle as it
tumbled down, other accounts of the accident said.
The driver of the overtaken bus told Israel's Channel 2 News that
he had been driving at 50 kilometres-per-hour when overtaken.
'I saw him through the rear-view mirror. I slowed down. We got to
the turn and he didn't regain control of the bus to bring it back on
course, and then he lost control,' he said.
Soldiers from nearby army bases were rushed to the scene and gave
emergency first aid as rescue personnel gingerly picked their way
through the scattered belongings on the ground to evacuate the injured
and clear the bodies.
Some 20 ambulances and three Israel Air Force helicopters were
rushed to the scene and began evacuating the passengers to a hospital
in Eilat.
The main hospital there issued an emergency call for all
vacationing doctors and nurses in the city to come help treat the
wounded. Some of the injured would be transferred to hospitals
elsewhere in Israel, Israel Radio reported.
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