Van crashes into Ecuador Gorge, killing 10 people

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At least 10 people died and two children were hospitalized with injuries in a traffic accident in southern Ecuador on Sunday, emergency services and local media reported.

A toddler about one year old survived the accident and was taken to the hospital along with a seriously injured six-year-old, ECU 911 emergency services said in a statement to the media.

The accident occurred around 5:00 a.m. (1000 GMT) when a “van-type vehicle” veered off the road in Santiago canton and fell “into the Paute River gorge,” the statement said.

Images broadcast on local media showed the overturned vehicle at the bottom of a rocky precipice as rescue workers worked among the rubble.

According to ECU 911, “several people” were trapped inside.

The cause of the accident was not initially clear.

Traffic accidents are one of the most common causes of death in Ecuador.

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