Bus crash
© Francis Malasig/EPAThe aftermath of the bus crash in Manila.
At least 21 killed in suburban Manila as bus veers off highway in wet weather and crushes van

At least 21 people were killed and about 20 others injured when a passenger bus plunged from an elevated highway and fell onto a van in suburban Manila, police said.

Superintendent Elizabeth Velasquez said the bus veered off the highway and crashed onto a van passing below in suburban Paranaque city at dawn on Monday. Both drivers were killed.

TV footage showed a number of bodies strewn around the bus wreckage with police officers milling around.

The van was an unrecognizable pile of smashed white metal.

Ivy Vidal, a spokeswoman for the corporation running the Skyway, as the elevated road is called, said it was not clear what caused the accident, but conditions were wet.

One witness told Philippine radio she saw the bus speeding past moments before the crash.

"I was driving at 80 kmh (50 mph) because it was still dark and raining when this bus overtook us," the woman, who gave her name as Irene, told dzMM radio.

"It was probably running at more than 100 kmh. Minutes later, I saw the bus fell off the highway. The railings on the highway were also gone."

Transport authorities immediately halted all other services run by bus company Don Mariano Transport, saying it had figured in an unspecified number of road accidents since 2011.