19 Oct 2025

At least 17 dead in Brazil road accident

11:00 am on 19 October 2025
This handout photo provided by Brazil's Federal Highway Police shows a bus destroyed after an accident on the BR-423 highway, near the city of Saloáa, in Pernambuco state, Brazil, on October 18, 2025. At least 15 people died in a road accident when a bus driver going the wrong way lost control of the vehicle in northeast Brazil, police said Saturday. (Photo by Handout / Brazil's Federal Highway Police / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / BRAZIL'S FEDERAL HIGHWAY POLICE" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

This handout photo provided by Brazil's Federal Highway Police shows a bus destroyed after an accident on the BR-423 highway, near the city of Saloáa, in Pernambuco state, Brazil, on 18 October, 2025. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP

At least 17 people have died in northeast Brazil when a bus that had been travelling on the wrong side of the road went out of control and flipped, police said Saturday (local time).

The tragedy took place late Friday in Pernambuco state, when the driver of the vehicle with 30 people aboard hit some rocks on the side of the road as he drove in the wrong lane, a police statement said.

The bus returned to the correct lane, but then crashed into an embankment before flipping over, the statement said.

Some of the passengers were ejected from the bus. The number of injuries was not immediately known.

The driver emerged with only slight injuries and tested negative for alcohol, police said.

The bus has been travelling from the town of Brumado to Santa Cruz do Capibaribe.

"To the families and friends of the victims, I express my sincere condolences and solidarity at this time of great pain," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on social media platform X.

- AFP