At least 20 people have died and another 17 have been injured in a car accident in Ecuador's coastal province of Guayas on Friday night, according to the ECU 911 national security system.

The accident included a triple collision between a transport bus, a school bus and a 4x4, said ECU 911 in a statement.

It added that various rescue and emergency teams had attended the site of the accident and that a preliminary count had found 19 bodies. This was later updated to 20 by Modesto Freire, a public prosecutor assigned to the investigation.

Due to the scale of the tragedy, medical teams have also been deployed to provide medical and psychological assistance to the families of the victims.

Reports from the site said the vehicles were so destroyed that rescue workers took up to 3 hours to free all the wounded.

On Saturday morning, a vigil had been set up at the crash site by relatives to pray for the victims. Ecuadorian daily El Universo reported that many of the dead belonged to the Camino Neocatecumenal Catholic community.

Traffic accidents are one of the main causes of death in Ecuador, mainly due to poor awareness of road safety and excessive speed among drivers, according to the government.

source: Xinhua