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LIMA -- At least 21 people were killed and nearly 20 others injured in a passenger bus accident in the southern Peruvian region of Ayacucho on Tuesday, local authorities said.

The interprovincial bus went off the road in the district of Paras, Cangallo province, Ayacucho region, and fell into a ravine about 200 meters deep, said Jhonny Rolando Valderrama, head of the National Police Road Protection Division, as reported by the state news agency Andina.

"Unofficially, there would be 21 deceased people," Valderrama said, adding that about 40 passengers were on the bus.

The accident occurred around 05:00 am local time, very close to the town of Rumichaca, on the Los Libertadores national highway that crosses the border of the Huancavelica and Ayacucho regions, when the bus was traveling on the Lima-Ayacucho route.

The regional health director of Ayacucho, John Tinco, said on RPP Radio that so far 15 injured had been counted, and were taken to the hospital.

In May, 17 people were killed in a bus crash in the Ayacucho region, including Edgar Alarcon Tejada, the country's former comptroller general and a former congressman.