MEXICO CITY – A bus carrying tourists including passengers of a flight from Phoenix crashed in western Mexico on Saturday, killing at least 17 people, authorities said.
The bus was carrying 35 passengers from the resort city of Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara when it ran off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine near the town of Compostela, about 125 miles from Guadalajara, the Nayarit's state prosecutor's office said in a statement.
At least 17 people were killed, including 13 men, three women and a 1-year-old child. Another 14 were injured, five seriously, the statement said.
Red Cross spokesman Miguel Langarica said 18 people were killed and 13 injured. It was not immediately possible to explain the discrepancy in the death tolls.
The driver, 28-year-old Magdiel Coronado, was also injured and hospitalized, authorities said.
Bus company spokesman Daniel Rios said as many as half of the passengers had arrived in Mexico on a flight from Phoenix on Friday. The plane had been bound for Guadalajara but was rerouted to Puerto Vallarta along with 17 other flights because of a fire at the Guadalajara airport.
Rios said the passengers had yet to be identified but that at least eight family members were Mexicans legally living in Phoenix who were in the country for Independence Day celebrations. Four of them were injured and one, a 1-year-old child, was killed.
Authorities said four of the injured lived in Los Angeles and Riverside, Calif., but they had no information on the deceased.
Reforma newspaper said the Guadalajara airport was shut down after a flight from Cancun caught fire. It was unclear if there were any injuries from the fire.
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