A tour bus full of Russians plunged over a cliff on desert ravine in southern Israel today killing at least 23 people and seriously injuring a dozen other people, police said.

The crash occurred just north of the popular Red Sea resort of Eilat. The bus was full of tour operators on a professional scouting trip who had just disembarked from a flight from St Petersburg at Eilat’s airport, officials said.

The bus had overtaken another tour bus at high speed in a no-passing zone when it smashed through a guard rail and crashed into a ravine, rolling over, the driver of the second bus said.

Rescue services and helicopters were rushed to the scene, where bodies and baggage were strewn along the lower slopes of a wadi, or seasonal riverbed.

“Dozens of wounded and dead were strewn along the slope. Most of them were thrown from the bus as it rolled,” said Gabi Baribo, a medic at the scene. There were some 60 passengers aboard the vehicle at the time of the crash, one of the worst road accidents in Israel in recent years.

A spokeswoman for the Russian Union of Tour Operators said the passengers were representatives from five Russian tour agencies who were making a professional scouting trip to Israel, a popular resort for Russian holidaymakers. Almost a million people of Russian Jewish descent live in Israel.

Dozens of ambulances and six rescue helicopters ferried the wounded to hospitals across the country. One of the first helicopters was a military chopper, whose crew found a scene of devastation but managed to rescue six people trapped inside the wreck.

“They were saved because they were trapped in their seats. The rest were scrambled and mangled, spread out along the slope,” said one of the soldiers.

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