Jakarta  - Nine people, including eight nuns, were killed when the car they were travelling in plunged into a ravine in Indonesia's South Sumatra province, hospital staff said Thursday.

Another nun was critically injured in the accident Wednesday, said Ani Mariani, an official at the Caritas hospital in the provincial capital, Palembang, where the nuns worked.

The nuns were on their way to pay homage to a deceased relative, she said.

Local media reported that a slippery road and lack of guard rails were to blame for the tragedy, which also killed the driver of the minivan. (dpa)