More than 50 people were killed in a horrific bus accident during an early morning commute in Guatemala.
The bus was headed for the capital, Guatemala City, when the driver lost control and drove off a bridge around 4:30 a.m local time.
Photos of the aftermath show the bus inverted at the bottom of a ravine. The vehicle was partly submerged in a river of sewage.
"So far, 53 people have died at the scene," a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office, Moises Ortiz, told reporters.
While the cause of the tragedy remains unclear, the bus apparently crashed into two cars and then broke through a guard rail.
"The bus kept going, broke through a metal railing, and fell into a ravine about 20 meters (65 feet) deep until it reached the sewage-contaminated river," the fire department's Carlos Hernandez told reporters.
An improvised morgue was set up near the scene of the accident as relatives of the victims gathered to learn the fates of their loved ones.
53 bodies were recovered at the scene, and two people who survived the crash died later at the hospital. The unsanitary conditions have made the job of rescue workers more difficult.
"We've been underwater for more than three hours trying to rescue the body of an apparently male person who is trapped between the twisted metal of the bus," said firefighter Luis Quintanilla.
The bus departed from San Antonio La Paz, a village 26 miles from the capital, in the early morning Monday. One woman told Guatemalan news site La Hora that her 67-year-old husband left home at 4 a.m. but never made it to work.
Investigators are considering if a mechanical failure caused the driver to lose control, or the possibility that the bus was overloaded.
The deputy director-general of Guatemala's National Civil Police, Helver Beltetón, said police are not ruling out any causes at this stage, including a criminal act.
"The brakes could have failed but we're also not ruling out an accident or a criminal act, all that will be investigated," he said.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo has declared three national days of mourning for the victims.
“I stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who today woke up to heartbreaking news,” Arévalo said in a televised address to the nation. “Their pain is my pain.”
