Deadly bus collision with truck on German motorway kills 18, injures 30

Eighteen people have been killed when a tour bus burst into flames after colliding with a truck on a motorway in the German state of Bavaria, police said.

Key points:

• Forty-eight passengers were on the bus, between 41 and 81 years old
• Police said they did not think foreigners were among the passengers
• Two of the 30 people injured are in a critical condition, Germany’s Transport Minister says

Thirty people were injured, some seriously, in the crash, which occurred shortly after 7:00am (local time) near the town of Stammbach, around 90 kilometres north-east of Nuremberg, police said.

The cause was unclear.

“It’s clear now that all 18 of the missing people on the bus died in the accident,” police said on Twitter.

Forty-eight people were on the bus. They were between 41 and 81 years old and most were from the eastern state of Saxony, police said.

The identities of some passengers had yet to be established, but police did not think foreigners were among the passengers, spokeswoman Irene Brandenstein said.

The truck driver was not injured, she added.

Speaking at the scene of the crash, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said two people were in a critical condition.

Source: Deadly bus collision with truck on German motorway kills 18, injures 30 – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)