AT least 17 people have been killed after a bus plunged almost 100ft into a ravine from a road known as the "Killer Curve".
Police fear the vehicle's brakes failed – causing the driver to lose control and crash in the Philippines.
The bus smashed through a concrete railing before plummeting into a gorge in Antique province on Tuesday afternoon.
Ronniel Pabustan, an Antique provincial crisis responder, said: "The driver was repeatedly sounding his horn because he had apparently lost control of the bus before it plummeted into the ravine."
Dozens of rescuers, including police, army troops and provincial emergency responders, worked to extricate the victims from the wreckage.
They used stretchers and ropes to bring the victims up the ravine in an hourslong rescue and retrieval work that dragged late into the night,
Local governor Rhodora Cadiao said it was travelling to Culasi from the neighbouring province of Iloilo when its brakes went wrong on a winding road and it plunged 98.5 feet into the ravine.
She confirmed 17 people had died and a further seven were in a critical condition, with another four stable.
Cadiao told DZRH radio station: "We call that area the killer curve. It was already the second bus that fell off there.
"The engineering design of this road is very faulty.
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"I want to condemn that road already."
Shocking pictures show the wreckage of the bus, with all windows smashed and the front destroyed.
Mr Pabustan added: "It's so tragic and painful because this happened close to Christmas."
The search for victims ended overnight but provincial officials urged village leaders to alert emergency crews if they find any more victims at the site of the accident, a thickly wooded area in the bottom of the ravine.
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