Caracas - Eleven soldiers died and 21 others were injured when a military vehicle tumbled down a ravine in the Venezuelan state of Sucre, authorities said Tuesday.

General Victor Hernandez - the head of the military barracks at Cumana, some 500 kilometres east of Caracas - said eight of the dead were students at an Army school in Maracay. Two Army sergeants and a corporal were also killed.

The accident happened in the town of Cumanacoa, in Sucre, and the vehicle involved was part of a military convoy that was doing a patrol exercise.

Hernandez noted that the injured were taken to nearby health centres and that all are in stable condition, with the exception of one officer who suffered a punctured lung. (dpa)