20 dead, 40 wounded in Peru traffic pile-up: police

A traffic accident involving a truck and two buses left at least 20 people dead and 40 people injured on the road linking the southern cities of Arequipa and Juliaca, a police spokesman said.

A traffic accident involving a truck and two buses left at least 20 people dead and 40 people injured on the road linking the southern cities of Arequipa and Juliaca, a police spokesman said.

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The huge early morning pile-up was the region’s second large-scale crash in 24 hours, after 12 people were killed and 39 injured on Monday when a bus overturned in the southern Andean state of Ayacucho.

Last year 875 people were victims of road accidents in Peru, and some 5,307 people were injured. The toll was a 10 per cent reduction from 2007, according to police.

Most incidents involved public transportation, with buses traveling on narrow roads in remote regions of the Peruvian Andes.