Story highlights Twenty pilgrims killed in road accident en route to Christmas mass

Deadly accident comes after a weekend of tragedies in the Philippines

Manila, Philippines (CNN) A fatal bus accident early Monday was the latest in a string of deadly tragedies to hit the Philippines this holiday weekend, including a typhoon and a shopping mall fire.

Twenty worshippers traveling to a dawn Christmas service were killed in the town of Agoo, about 200 km north of the capital Manila.

About 3:30 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. Sunday ET), a public bus collided with a smaller private vehicle known as a jeepney, according to Jason Falao, a senior police officer in Agoo.

All the fatalities were aboard the smaller vehicle, an Isuzu SUV-style jeepney. It was carrying 29 people, taking the passengers to Manaoag church in the neighboring province of Pangasinan, a well-known pilgrimage destination in the heavily Catholic country.

The jeepney was heading north when it overtook another vehicle and crashed into the bigger bus, Falao said. One person on the bus sustained minor injuries, he said.

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