QUITO, Aug 13 — Twelve people were killed and 30 injured when a bus carrying fans of Barcelona SC, Ecuador’s most popular football club, crashed yesterday, officials said. The bus was heading from the southern city of Cuenca to the coastal city of Guayaquil, where Barcelona is based, after a local tournament game. The coach overturned on the road between Cuenca and Molleturo, Ecuador

The vehicle apparently ran off the road and flipped around 8.30pm BST, Ecuador's Transit Commission said. "We received the news of the accident of our fans... with much pain," the president of Barcelona, former national goalkeeper Jose Francisco Cevallos, wrote on Twitter. "With much pain we received the news of the accident of our fans who traveled to Cuenca to encourage the team," Barcelona SC Chairman Joseph Cevallos tweeted. "We are making arrangements to quickly get the bodies to give them a Christian burial," added Cevallos, who is also a former sports minister. "We are making arrangements to quickly get the bodies to give them a christian burial.”

Transit authorities had initially said 10 people had died and 35 injured in the accident. Cevallos later told reporters that a wake would be held for the victims at the football club's home stadium in Guayaquil. A firefighter at the scene of the accident, citing a witness, told Teleamazonas TV that the bus driver had tried to cut off another vehicle just before the accident. The bus was loaded with fans from Ecuadorian Football Team Barcelona SC as they traveled home from Cuenca after a match against Deportivo Cuenca. The rival team offered their condolences and "solidarity" via Twitter, and offered wishes for the "quick recovery" of those injured. Officials said the bus had passed its most recent safety inspection. Traffic accidents are among the leading causes of deaths in Ecuador, Pan American Health Organization data shows. According to the watchdog group Justicia Vial, on average seven people are killed and some 80 people injured each day in traffic accidents. And 96 per cent of those accidents are due to human error, usually the driver’s fault, according to the group’s figures.
Twelve fans of Ecuadorian football team Barcelona S.C. are killed and 30 others are injured after the bus they were traveling on overturns in Azuay, Ecuador.