AT least 21 people have died after a bus skidded and fell down a mountainside.

Officials said that 14 others were injured during the horror cliff-side plummet in Kotmale, Sri Lanka on Sunday.

Shocking TV footage showed the bus lying overturned at the bottom of a precipice.

Recovery workers and civilians helped remove the injured survivors from the wreckage.

It also showed onlookers watch on during the gruelling recovery mission.

The bus made the harrowing plummet along the Nuwara Eliya-Gampola Main road, in the Gerandi Ella region.

It sat at the bottom of a mountainside overturned, appearing to be caught up in shrubs and trees.

Reports said the bus was en route from Kataragama to Kurunegala at the time of the fall.

The driver survived the horrifying ordeal, and was taken to hospital for treatment.

Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways Prasanna Gunasena said 21 people died in the accident while 14 others were being treated in various hospitals.

At the time of the accident, nearly 50 people were travelling on the doomed bus.

Fatal bus crashes are not uncommon in the South Asian nation, especially in its mountainous regions.

This is often due to reckless drivers, paired with poorly maintained roads.

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