13 dead as student bus crashes in Spain

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least 13 people have been killed after a bus carrying foreign students crashed on a Spanish motorway between the cities of Barcelona and Valencia, BBC News reports.

Most of the 57 people on board the bus were students on the Erasmus program who were returning to Barcelona after a trip to a fireworks festival.

The accident occurred near Freginals, 150km (93 miles) south of Barcelona.

All of those who died were female, officials say. Their nationalities have not been made public while the process of identification continues.

Those on board the bus included students from the UK, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Italy, Peru, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, the Palestinian territories, Japan and Ukraine, local Spanish officials said.

Of the 43 people injured, 28 were taken to hospital.

Jordi Jane, Catalonia's regional interior minister, said the driver of the coach had "hit the railing on the right and swerved to the left so violently that the bus veered onto the other side of the highway".

The bus then hit a vehicle coming in the opposite direction, injuring two people inside.

The location is a known accident blackspot.

The driver of the bus survived the collision and has been taken to a local police station. He has tested negative for alcohol or drugs and, according to sources close to the investigation quoted by Spain's Efe news agency, had worked for the bus company for 17 years without incident.