Guatemala City, Jan 9 : At least 14 people were killed and over 25 seriously injured when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a ravine in western Guatemala, officials said.

The accident took place Saturday between the towns of Tejutla and Concepcion Tutuapa, some 280 km west of the Guatemalan capital.

The victims, both dead and injured, were former members of the Civil Self-Defence Patrols, known collectively as the PAC, paramilitaries who collaborated with the army to fight leftist guerrillas during Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war.

"We recovered 14 bodies from the wreckage of the bus, and took 25 to the national hospital in San Marcos province, several of them in critical condition," an official said.

"The driver was going really fast and when he came to a curve, the brakes failed and we crashed down the ravine," one of the survivors of the accident told local media.

"There were about 60 of us on the bus, all ex-militiamen who were going to Concepcion Tutuapa," the survivor said. (IANS/EFE)