QUITO – At least 27 people died and 30 others were injured Sunday in a bus crash in the northern Ecuadorian province of Imbabura, said Victor Bazantes, with the fire department in the city of Ibarra.

Based on the statements of survivors, Bazantes said that apparently the bus in which they were riding had a problem with its brakes and crashed into a wall, then rolled down an incline.

The accident occurred on the Ibarra-San Lorenzo highway linking the provinces of Imbabura with Esmeraldas, the latter on the border with Colombia.

Three children died in the crash, which occurred near the community of Cuajara, near the city of Ibarra, the capital of the same-named Andean province.

The injured were taken to nearby medical facilities, but two people were transported by helicopter to Quito, Bazantes said.

A relative of some of the victims told the daily El Comercio that the people on the bus were Jehovah’s Witnesses who were traveling to a church service in the parish of Lita.

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