CARACAS: A bus carrying Argentina's Huracan soccer team overturned on Wednesday in Venezuela, according to a local official and a diplomat, but the team suffered only minor injuries.
The bus was headed from the capital of Caracas down a steep mountain toward the international airport in the state of Vargas around midday when its brakes went out, Captain Jose Madrid of Vargas' state firefighters said via telephone.
The bus driver attempted to move the vehicle onto an emergency escape ramp when it flipped, Madrid said. Players, who were in Venezuela for a Copa Libertadores qualifying round, sustained only light injuries, he said.
The Argentine embassy received a call informing it of an accident involving Huracan, according to an embassy source who asked not to be identified, adding that the business attache was on his way to the scene of the incident.
Huracan won a qualifying tie in the Copa Libertadores, South America's top annual club competition.
Venezuelans routinely complain that they struggle to find replacement parts for vehicles because of currency controls that limit access to dollars for imports. Falling oil prices have left the government with fewer available dollars.
(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Reuters
