At least 17 passengers including two foreign women were injured when a private bus skidded off the road and plunged 80 feet down a precipice at Aruppala in Kandy last night.

Police said the bus was travelling from Watapaluwa to Kandy when the accident occurred.

Thirteen women including a German and a Canadian woman have been admitted to the Kandy Hospital.

The bus driver and three others men were among the injured.