At least 42 people were killed and nine others injured on Monday after a bus carrying police officers crashed into a ravine near the Salta province in northwestern Argentina. The bus plunged 20 metres into the ravine early on Monday after the driver lost control, police said. It was part of a convoy of three buses carrying gendarmes and had around 60 people on-board.

Survivors have been taken to a hospital, while rescue workers are still at the site of the accident, authorities said. Provincial emergency director Ernesto Flores told a local radio station that some people were still trapped in the wreckage.

The police said they were not ruling out mechanical failure as a cause, as visibility was good when the accident occurred.