13 die as bus veers off highway and into ditch

A BUS carrying a group of senior citizens was hit by a truck in eastern Germany yesterday and plunged down an embankment, killing 13 people, authorities said.

Police spokesman Ralf Moritz said 31 people were injured, many of them seriously, in the accident on the A14 between Halle and Magdeburg.

The bus, carrying 48 people from Hopsten in north-western Germany, came off the road at about 1.45pm.