Eleven killed in Philippine bus plunge

This file photo shows a general view of rice terraces in Bontoc, the Cordillera mountain region of the northern Phliippines, in 2005. Eleven people died and 10 others were injured when a bus fell into a ravine near Bontoc, police said on Monday

Eleven people died and 10 others were injured when a bus fell into a ravine in the northern Philippines, police said Monday. Disaster struck near the town of Bontoc, 275 kilometres (170 miles) north of Manila, on Sunday when a bag fell off the vehicle as it laboured up an uphill road and the driver stopped for it, a provincial police report said. The bus however rolled backwards until it pitched down a 150-metre (500-foot) cliff. Rescuers pulled 11 corpses from the bottom of the ravine and rescued 14 people, including four who escaped injury.