© APAug. 21, 2013: Malaysian emergency services personnel rescue a passenger by a crane after a passenger bus carrying tourists and local residents fell into a ravine near the Genting Highlands, about an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"Rescue operation is still on. We think there were 53 passengers on board, but we are not sure," said Che Shaari Abdullah, an assistant director at Kuala Lumpur's Fire and Rescue Department. The cause of the accident is still being probed, he added.
Malaysian emergency services personnel work to rescue passengers after a bus carrying tourists and local residents fell into a ravine near the Genting Highlands, about an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur.
Fire Department spokesman Christopher Chong said that the bus was likely overloaded as it was meant to carry only 44 passengers.
The bus was coming back from the Genting Highlands - a patch of hillocks 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Kuala Lumpur and home to Malaysia's only casino - when it skidded off the road Wednesday afternoon.
Sixteen passengers were rescued - some with serious injuries - and are being treated in hospitals in Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs, the official said.
Rescuers used police dogs to scour the dense undergrowth for survivors, Mr. Shaari said. They are also using cranes to lift the bodies out because the site of the accident doesn't have road access. The driver of the bus was among those killed, Mr. Shaari added.
The identities of the passengers had yet to be determined, and their nationalities weren't immediately known. Sporadic accidents have marred the snaking road to the 42-year-old hilltop casino resort, which draws more than 20 million visitors a year. Last year, two Indian tourists died and more than a dozen were injured after their bus overturned near Genting Highland.
The death toll on Wednesday surpassed an accident in 2010 when 28 people - mostly Thai nationals - were killed after their bus overturned near another tourist destination, the Cameron Highlands.
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