At least 44 people have been killed after a double-decker bus veered off a road and tumbled 650ft down a cliff in southern Peru.

Police said about two dozen people were injured but they are not sure how many people were on board. Air Force helicopters helped rescue survivors.

The accident took place before dawn on Wednesday near a river in the coastal province of Camana.

The cause was not immediately known but accidents caused by reckless driving on poorly maintained mountain roads claim dozens of lives every year in Peru.

In January 52 people were killed in the country’s worst road accident in four decades.