国际英语新闻:Peru road crashes kill 7 police, 18 civilians on election day

LIMA, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 25 people, including seven police officers, died in two separate road accidents amid voting in local and regional elections Sunday in Peru, media sources said.

The seven police officers died when their patrol car skidded off the road and plummeted off a cliff in a mountainous zone of western La Libertad region, the Radio Programas del Peru (RPP) news station said.

The officers were traveling between the cities of Calamarca to Trujillo, where they were to reinforce the police presence "due to recent clashes between local candidates," the RPP said.

One officer survived and was taken to a hospital in Trujillo for treatment.

In a separate but also election-related accident, 18 people died and another 11 were injured when their passenger bus skidded off a cliff and fell 50 meters, on a stretch of the North Pan- American Highway, the state Andina news agency said.

"Most of the passengers were heading to (the capital) Lima to exercise their right to vote in the 2014 local and regional elections," Andina said.

The crash, which took place at 2 a.m. local time Sunday near Huaraz city, in Peru's northwest Ancash region, is being investigated.