Nineteen die in army bus crash in Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov 13 (Reuters) Seventeen Chilean soldiers and two civilians died when the bus they were traveling in plunged off a bridge into a river, the army said.

The accident happened around midday yesterday near the Chilean village of Canete, about 375 miles (600 km) south of the capital Santiago, during torrential rain.

The bus smashed through a barrier at the side of the road and plummeted 50 feet (15 metres) into the Tucapel River.

Television pictures showed it lying on its side, completely submerged, with many of its windows smashed.

Gen. Oscar Izurieta, head of the Chilean army, said 14 of the victims were members of a military musical band, traveling to an anniversary celebration in Canete. The driver of the bus was among the dead.

Nine soldiers survived and were being treated in local hospitals, the army said.

Government officials traveled to the scene and government spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber described the crash in a statement as a cause for ''deep worry and pain.'' In May 2005, 45 Chilean soldiers died in a ferocious snowstorm in the southern Andes, along Chile's eastern border.

That death toll was the worst suffered by the Chilean army in a single incident in peace time.

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