At least 24 people were killed and another 19 injured when a bus careened into another vehicle at high speed and overturned on a highway near Ecuador's capital, officials reported. The Colombian-registered bus was travelling to Quito when it hit a smaller vehicle in an area known as dead man's curve yesterday, Ecuadorean authorities said.

Col Wilson Pavon, head of Ecuador's transit police, said the majority of the passengers aboard were Colombians, but that Venezuelans were also among the dead. Three people, including two minors travelling in the smaller vehicle were also killed. 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. It's the second highway tragedy in less than three days in Ecuador.