At least four runners were killed and dozens more injured when a bus carrying them to a race plunged down a cliff in Thailand.

The passengers were on the coach driving along a mountain road in Si Sa Ket province to take part in the Suranaree Trail Running 2023 contest on July 9.

The vehicle was said to be going at a high speed before ramming the concrete guardrail and falling 16 feet down the cliff.

Local authorities and emergency teams arrived at the site and found four people dead. They were identified by officials as Sirikorn Pankarnchanasakul, Orathai Champathong, Maneerat Sakulsirakit, and Sergeant Tossaporn Hannarong.

A rescue team used power tools to cut through the metal and extract the other runners inside. The 43 injured - including two foreigners Joel Gatobu and Victor Kanying Maina - were rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment.

Bus passenger Weerapong Sirimoolsarn said: 'It all happened so quickly. I was at the back of the bus, and most of the injured and killed were at the front. The bus was going quite fast.

'The event organisers should have inspected the bus more thoroughly. Vans or small cars would have been safer as well since we were on a mountain road.'

Major General Weerayut Raksin, the commander of the Suranaree Task Force, said an investigation into the crash has been launched. Financial compensation will be given to the families of the deceased and wounded, he said.

Thailand has one of the world's worst road safety records. Ministers have set the goal of reducing fatalities from 32.7 deaths per 100,000 people to 12 per 100,000 people by the year 2027.

However, a lack of road safety education in schools along with notoriously easy driving tests, police failures to enforce road laws, and chronic under-investment in infrastructure, all appear to hamper the efforts.