Bus crash in Ecuador kills 24 people, injures 22

Police officers prepare salvage a vehicle that collided with a Colombian-registered bus travelling to Quito, in Pifo, Ecuador. Photo / AP

A bus apparently lost its brakes, then hit another vehicle at high speed and rolled over four times, killing at least 24 people and injuring 22 while smashing into several houses along a highway near Ecuador's capital.

The Colombian-registered bus was travelling to Quito when it hit a smaller vehicle in an area known as dead man's curve at about 3am local time, Ecuadorean authorities said.

Residents described hearing a thundering noise like the world crashing down on them as the bus struck their homes in Pifo, a community 30km from Quito.

Michelle Manay said she woke up and ran outside to see the carnage. "There were some people alive and others who weren't," she said.

Colonel Wilson Pavon, head of Ecuador's transit police, said the majority of the passengers aboard were Colombians, but some Venezuelans were also among the dead. Three people, including two minors, traveling in the smaller vehicle also died.

A small fleet of ambulances and first responders rushed to the crash site about two hours from Quito before dawn. They found the severely wrecked bus overturned and several homes adjacent to the highway damaged and strewn with metal debris.

General Patricio Carillo of the Ecuadorean police told local reporters that it appeared the bus' brakes failed, causing the driver to lose control and hit an oncoming car before crashing into poles and houses as it rolled.

The investigation was continuing and the driver is hospitalised among the injured, Carillo said.

Officials spent the early morning combing through the bus and removing the victims.

"Among the tasks is identifying the bodies of the dead and coordinating with authorities in Colombia and Venezuela for their return," Carillo said.

It was the second bus tragedy in less than three days in Ecuador.

On Sunday, 12 people were killed and 30 more were injured when a bus carrying fans of an Ecuadorean soccer team overturned on a highway after a game.

- AP