Mexican bus crash kills 63

A tour bus veered off a mountain road, crashed through the metal barrier and plummeted hundreds of feet down a ravine in eastern Mexico yesterday, 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 travelling to Veracruz.

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