BUDAPEST: A Polish bus crashed into a ditch on a Hungarian highway early on Sunday killing 12 people and leaving at least 10 with critical injuries, officials said. The coach, heading from Serbia to Poland, crashed at 01:00 am (23:00 GMT Saturday) on the M3 highway near Mezokeresztes, about 140 kilometres east of Budapest, according to police. The bus, with 57 passengers and two drivers, "left the road, ended up in a ditch, and came to a stop on its side," the national disaster management agency said in a social media post.
Hungary's Interior Minister Gabor Posfai said the driver had been detained and media quoted police as saying he had fallen asleep at the wheel. A Polish diplomat, Andrzej Osiak, told a press conference that five of the injured were fighting for their lives.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had ordered a special flight to be sent to collect the passengers on the bus who could travel. Eleven people were declared dead at the scene and another person died in hospital, the disaster agency said. The ambulance service said 37 people suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospitals in four cities. — AFP
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