AT least 24 Tunisians were killed and 18 more injured when a bus plunged into a ravine Sunday, in one of the country’s worst road accidents.

The bus had set off from Tunis to the picturesque northern mountain town of Ain Draham, a popular autumn destination for Tunisians near the Algerian border, the tourism ministry said.

Twenty-four people were killed and 18 injured, the victims aged between 20 and 30, said the health ministry.

The bus with 43 people on board was traveling through the northern Ain Snoussi region when it veered off the road, the interior ministry said.

The vehicle had “fallen into a ravine after crashing through an iron barrier,” it said on its Facebook page. The injured were transferred to nearby hospitals.

Forensic experts were deployed to investigate the crash.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident, but Tunisian roads are known to be dangerous and run-down.

Tourism Minister Rene Trabelsi told a private radio station Mosaique FM that the “unfortunate accident took place in a difficult area” and just after the bus had taken a “sharp bend.”

(SD-Agencies)