Passenger truck crash kills at least 17 in Nicaragua

In this undated handout photo provided by the Ministry of Defence on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020, a Merlin Helicopter from 845 Naval Air Squadron conducting damage surveys in Honduras.. (LPhot Robert Oates/Ministry of Defence via AP)

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — An aging passenger truck plunged off a road in a mountainous part of northeastern Nicaragua on Monday, killing at least 17 people and injuring 25 more, according to police.

The accident occurred in an area called Ocote Tuma, some 260 kilometres (160 miles) northeast of Managua in a region devastated by the recent passage of Hurricanes Eta and Iota

The National Police said the dead included 12 females -- at least one of them a girl -- and five males.

Television images showed the truck, an old East German IFA military vehicle converted for hauling passengers, overturned on a narrow, muddy road. Mayor German Vargas of nearby Waslala told Channel 8 television that the the truck lost its brakes going down a hill.

It wasn't clear how many people had been in the truck, which could have hauled roughly 60 people.

Eta and Iota both his Nicaragua's eastern coast as Category 4 hurricanes this month, killing at least 21 people and causing extensive damage.