A YOUNG woman from Kent has died in a minibus crash in Mexico, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

She has been named as student Chloe Elizabeth Taylor, from Tunbridge Wells, who was one of two Britons killed in the tragedy.

The other victim was Rebecca Owen, who lived near Welshpool in Powys. Both are believed to have been gap-year students in their twenties.

Miss Taylor had arrived in Mexico on January 9 and was expected to travel to Peru on April 7, a few weeks after Miss Owen was due to make the same journey.

The crash happened in the state of Jalisco during the early hours of Sunday morning, when the two girls and fellow volunteers on a conservation project were returning to their accommodation.

Another six Britons, a German student and another from Austria suffered minor injuries in the accident, which as the minibus was travelling back to La Huerta from Melaque, near Barra de Navidad.

The volunteers had been returning from a trip to view bats in their natural habitat.

Dr Peter Slowe, director of Teaching and Projects Abroad, founded in 1992, said: "We are giving both families every assistance they require to help them through this difficult time.

"We have offered to fly them out to the scene and both families have already left for Mexico.

"We are shocked and saddened by this accident, but can do no more at this stage than offer our deepest sympathies and support to the bereaved families, and assure all our volunteers and their families that we are investigating the accident alongside all the relevant authorities to get at the root of why it happened."

Dr Slowe thanked Mexican police and hospital staff, and UK consular officials, for their help and support.

Four of the injured have been discharged following treatment, three more are expected to be released shortly, and just one is likely to be detained for observation.

Teaching and Projects Abroad sends more than 1,500 volunteers from the UK, North America and Europe to 19 countries around the world every year.

Sunday’s fatal crash is believed to be the first such tragedy since the group’s launch 13 years ago.

* Mexico has a sombre history of fatal bus crashes. Past incidents include the following:

• January 1996 - 23 killed, up to 100 hurt following head-on collision between two buses 13 miles south of the

Mexico/Arizona border:

• August 2002 - At least 16 killed and 30 injured when bus hit a post and rolled into a stream in the north-western state of Sonora

• January 2003 - at least 18 killed and 22 injured when a bus plunged off a mountain road in the state of Zacatecas.