19th July, 2014
At least nine people were killed and 43 hurt on Saturday, police said, as a coach carrying Polish holidaymakers collided with another Polish minibus near the eastern German city of Dresden.
The crash happened in the early hours of Saturday morning on the A4 motorway that links Poland and Germany.
All seven people in the smaller minibus died, along with two people in the double-decker coach, according to the Bild daily. The accident also produced several serious injuries, according to German authorities.
German police have already identified six of the nine dead as Polish nationals. The 43 injured were rushed to nearby hospitals.
According to early indications, the Polish coach crashed into a Ukrainian coach in front of it, skidding across the motorway and before colliding with the Polish minibus, which was travelling in the other direction.
Police temporarily blocked the motorway in both directions and authorities warned that traffic could be even more dense than usual because the accident coincided with the start of summer school holidays in the region.
According to Polish travel company Sindbad, which operates the coach, there were 65 passengers on board and three crew. The majority were Polish.