Turkish bus crash kills 19

A bus in a wedding convoy veered off the road and slammed into a retaining wall in northern Turkey today, killing 19 people and injuring several others.

The bus was travelling at a high speed and lost control along a road outside the northern city of Amasya, 200 miles north east of the capital Ankara, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Ozgur Ozdemir, mayor of Tasova, the town nearest the crash site, said on private CNN-Turk television that preliminary evidence suggested that the brakes had failed on the bus.

Television footage showed the bus resting against the stone wall.

Much of its right side had been ripped off, and pieces of metal were scattered alongside the road.

Wooden coffins were lined up next to the wreckage.

Ozdemir said 19 people, including at least one child, were killed. Eight people, including a baby, were being treated at local hospitals.

About 30 people had been aboard the bus, Ozdemir added.

Anatolia said the bus was travelling to Amasya from Tokat, a city 70 miles to the southeast.