AT LEAST 15 people have died after a packed tourist bus plunged almost 1,000ft off a mountain road.
The bus crashed into another vehicle before smashing through guardrails on the side of a road in Sri Lanka.
APAt least 15 people have died after a packed tourist bus plunged almost 1,000ft off a mountain road[/caption]
The fatal accident took place on Thursday night in the mountainous Ella region just 130km east of the capital.
Sixteen others on board were injured but managed to escape the wreckage.
Police confirmed that the group were made up of local tourists who had been visiting lush tea plantation hill towns in the area.
Pictures show the smashed up bus on the ground after the horror fall.
Its roof had been partially ripped off, with destroyed bus seats and splintered glass from the windows left strewn across the grass.
Soldiers can be seen surrounding the bus as they investigated the cause of the crash.
A survivor revealed the bus driver had managed to warn his passengers of the impending fall moments before the fatal plunge.
It is believed that the brake system on the bus had failed after it hit an oncoming vehicle.
The conductor shouted as loud as he could urging everyone to get low and hold on tight, the survivor said.
Seconds later, the bus crashed into the safety barriers at the side of the road twice with a loud bang before it crashed down the precipice.
The woman said: “I was thrown out of the bus through a broken window.”
The accident is the worst since May, when 23 passengers died in a bus crash in Kotmale.
The bus made the harrowing plummet along the Nuwara Eliya-Gampola main road, in the Gerandi Ella region.
It sat at the bottom of a mountainside overturned, appearing to be caught up in shrubs and trees.
Chilling images showed the roof of the bus seemingly ripped off, leaving empty chairs exposed.
APThe accident is the worst since May, when 23 passengers died in a bus crash in Kotmale[/caption]