Nine people were killed when a tourist bus carrying 48 people plunged 30 m down a steep embankment from a highway in the U.S. state of Oregon on Monday.

The Foreign Ministry here said Tuesday that five of the victims have been identified as Korean, three others were Korean American and one has not been identified.

Emergency personnel attend the scene after a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy highway and fell several hundred feet down a steep embankment about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Oregon, killing nine people. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84. /AP-Yonhap

The passengers were mostly Korean expatriates on a sightseeing trip. The survivors sustained minor injuries.