www.bbc.com
Canada highway crash near Winnipeg leaves at least 15 dead
The crash between a truck and a bus carrying elderly people sparks massive emergency response.
International
At least 15 people have died after a bus carrying elderly people crashed into a truck in the Canadian province of Manitoba.
Police said the collision happened on the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry, two hours west of Winnipeg.
At least 10 people, including the two drivers, have been taken to hospital.
Witness John Proven said he saw a burning vehicle in a ditch just after noon local time on Thursday. "I have never seen an accident that big."
Mr Proven said he also saw a semi-trailer truck nearby with a burned front end.
In several tweets, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Manitoba said it was responding to a serious "mass casualty" collision and that all of its resources, including its major crime unit, had been deployed to the scene.
Emergency vehicles, including an air ambulance and 12 ambulances, were dispatched to the scene at 11:43 local time on Thursday (17:35 BST), the RCMP said at a press conference.
Most of the elderly people aboard were from Dauphin, Manitoba, and the surrounding areas.
Those in hospital have "significant" injuries due to the force of the crash, officials said.
The RCMP had asked motorists to avoid the area as several kilometres of the highway were closed near the crash site.
A spokesperson with the local air ambulance service told the news outlet that the agency had deployed one of its largest responses ever to the crash.
"This is sort of in line with the similar large incidents that we responded to in the past, such as the tragedy with Humboldt Broncos," Blake Robert said, referring to a 2018 crash between a bus carrying a youth hockey team and a semi-trailer truck that led to the death of 16 people.