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18 Feared Dead in German Bus Accident

Firefighters at the site where a coach burst into flames after colliding with a lorry on a motorway near Muenchberg, Germany, in this still image taken from video on July 3.
Firefighters at the site where a coach burst into flames after colliding with a lorry on a motorway near Muenchberg, Germany, in this still image taken from video on July 3.

Up to 18 people were feared killed Monday in one of Germany’s worst road accidents after a tour bus carrying pensioners burst into flames in a collision with a trailer truck, police said.

“Thirty passengers were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. The others are believed to have died in the burning tour bus,” which had been carrying 48 people, police said in a statement, AFP reported. The bus carrying 46 passengers and two drivers rammed into the trailer in a traffic jam on the motorway A9 close to the Bavarian town of Stammbach.

The crash shortly after 7 am (0500 GMT) sent the bus up in flames, with television images showing only the charred skeleton of the vehicle remaining. The bus was carrying a tour group from eastern Germany’s Saxony state, police said, and it was bound for Nuremberg, according to Bild newspaper.

Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced “great dismay” over the crash, with her spokesman saying: “Our thoughts and condolences go to the victims and their family members, as well as to the injured. We hope that those who have been rescued will recover from their injuries.”

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt and Bavaria state’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, were on the way to the site.

The accident struck near the southern town Bayreuth, best known for the opera festival that draws thousands of classical music lovers every summer.

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