Tributes paid to Ecuador crash victims

Tributes were paid on Monday to four British gap year students and their tour guide who were killed in a bus crash in Ecuador at the weekend.

Indira Swann, 18, Elizabeth Pincock, 19, Rebecca Logie, 19, Emily Sadler, 19, and tour leader Sarah Howard, 26, died when their bus collided with a truck on Saturday.

They were taking part in a trip organised by Warwick-based gap year specialist VentureCo. Twelve other Britons were injured in the crash.

The family of Emily Sadler said she was "the kind of girl that everybody loved". In a statement, they said: "She was a beautiful, bubbly girl with her whole life ahead of her. Her loss is indescribable."

The parents of Indira Swann said she was due to read Classics and English at King's College London later this year.

"Her happiness was infectious," her father Greg Swann was reported as saying in the Times. "We are absolutely devastated. "She had a large circle of friends and she will be so sadly missed."

The parents of Rebecca Logie said they hoped the accident would not deter other young people from travelling the world.

"I don't want anybody to be put off by what happened to our daughter. It was an accident," her father Robin Logie was quoted as saying on the Lancashire Evening Post Web site.

A Downing Street spokesman said Prime Minister Gordon Brown was "deeply saddened" to hear of the deaths. "His thoughts are with their families and friends," the spokesman said.

The crash happened as the group travelled from the capital Quito to the coastal town of Puerto Lopez. An investigation has been launched into the cause.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the acting ambassador in Quito had arrived in Manta, where he is visiting the injured at a clinic.

They were being treated for minor injuries and will return to Quito in the next day or two, and then on to Britain, depending on their condition.

Tour operator VentureCo said in a statement: "Our deepest sympathy goes to those involved and their families and friends."