Mexican bus crashes down ravine, 63 dead

MEXICO CITY, Apr 17 (Reuters) A tour bus veered off a mountain road, crashed through the metal barrier and plummeted hundreds of feet down a ravine in eastern Mexico today, killing 63 people, police said.

The accident, on a steep stretch of highway linking the capital with the Gulf of Mexico port city of Veracruz, was one of the worst traffic crashes in Mexico in recent years.

At least 10 children were among the dead.

''It broke the barrier and went down a ravine,'' civil protection official Ranulfo Marquez said.

He said the dead were all Mexicans on a chartered bus traveling to Veracruz.

The crash happened near the Pico de Orizaba, a dormant volcano and Mexico's tallest mountain at over 18,300 feet (5,600 metres).

REUTERS PDS PM0148