Dozens killed after bus plunges off cliff

At least 42 people have been killed when a passenger bus plunged off a ridge in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, police said.

The bus, en route from the neighbouring state of Parana, swerved off a curve and fell dozens of metres before crashing in a wooded area.

Rescue crews were bringing up dozens of bodies as well as survivors. However, access to the crash site remained difficult, while a local government told AFP news agency on Saturday, saying that the toll could still rise.

The bus was about 10 kilometres from its destination in the city of Joinville when it crashed. Highway and weather conditions at the time were good, a police spokesman said.

The driver is believed to have lost control of the vehicle on the highway. Though no immediate cause for the crash had been determined, police said it appeared the brakes on the bus failed.

Emergency crews rescued 12 people who survived. They were taken to hospital for treatment.

"There are people out there, on the hill, in the bus, trapped in the wreckage. But the chance of finding someone alive are pretty slim," Colonel Nelson Coelho said in a statement.

Brazil has some of Latin America’s deadliest roads. Despite nearly a decade of sustained economic growth that only slowed in recent years, the country has done little to improve or expand its creaky infrastructure.

The country averages more than 18 highway deaths per 100,000 people per year, compared with only about 10 in high-income countries, according to a report by the Inter-American Development Bank.

The tolls in nearby Argentina, Colombia and Chile average about 13.