Vienna [Austria], September 20: A woman has been killed and 46 others were injured in a bus accident in southern Austria, police said on Tuesday.
The bus, which was coming from Berlin, crashed on Tuesday morning near the town of Micheldorf in the state of Carinthia.
According to initial investigations, two drivers and 45 passengers from Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Germany and Ukraine were on the bus, a police spokeswoman said.
The deceased was a 19-year-old Austrian woman. Five of the wounded were said to have suffered serious injuries.
The bus had been on its way to the Italian port city of Trieste when it crashed into a guard rail and came to rest on its side.
Passengers on the double-decker bus included citizens from Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Italy and Ukraine, APA agency reported.
Photos from the accident site showed a double-decker bus operated by the long-distance bus service company FlixBus. The cause of the accident was initially unclear. Police said rapid alcohol tests taken by the drivers were negative.
A police spokeswoman also said there was no information about the speed and behaviour of the driver at the time of the accident.
According to the Red Cross, the bus probably hit a concrete guardrail and overturned, APA reported.
Fifty-five emergency staffers belonging to several local fire departments were involved in the rescue operation.
The Althofen fire department said that numerous passengers, including injured people, were still in the bus when the rescuers arrived. Three people had to be freed from the vehicle by using hydraulic equipment. The remaining passengers were helped out of the overturned bus by the rescuers using ladders, APA reported. Most of the injured were taken to a hospital in Friesach, and one seriously injured - a 25-year-old German woman - was transferred to a hospital in Klagenfurt.
Source: Qatar Tribune