Forty-two Japanese people were injured Friday after their bus tumbled off a cliff in a suburb of Durban, South Africa, local police and the local tour operator said.
Seven of the Japanese and the local tour guide were hospitalized in Durban.
The accident occurred at around 11:30 a.m., the Japanese Embassy said. The bus was carrying a group of 42 Japanese — comprising 40 tourists aged 22 to 77, a tour attendant and an interpreter — and a locally hired driver and a guide, it said.
The tourists were taking part in an around-the-world cruise with Japanese civic group Peace Boat, the embassy said.
South African travel agency Plant Africa Tours, which handled the local arrangements for the tour, said seven Japanese and the local tour guide were taken to a hospital in Durban, about 500 km southeast of Johannesburg.
Japan Grace Co., the Japanese travel agency that arranged the tour, said in Japan that a man in his mid-50s and six women aged between their late 30s and mid-60s were hospitalized in Durban, and that a woman in her late 30s broke her left leg and another man sustained spinal injuries.
One woman sustained cuts to her hands and legs, while another person who appears to be in shock is undergoing a medical examination, Japan Grace said.
The bus was on its way back to Durban from Drakensberg Park, a mountainous sightseeing spot on the UNESCO World Heritage list about 200 km west of Durban, the embassy said.