Lima, Peru ? At least 25 people are dead after a bus tumbled off a mountain road in central Peru and fell into a gorge late Monday.

It happened in the highland Jaucan district about 190 miles southeast of the capital, Lima, the state news agency reported Tuesday.

The bus was reportedly carrying merchants to the highland city of Huancayo, where they planned to sell their wares at a local market.

Buses in Peru often are poorly maintained, and drivers frequently speed and pass each other on blind mountain curves. Even legal buses tend to be 10 to 15 years old and rundown.

Overall, some 557 people were killed in bus accidents in Peru between July 2004 and June 2005, according the Center for Investigation of Overland Transport.

On Monday, 57 people were killed in a bus plunge in Mexico.