Russia: Girl killed, eight injured in school bus crash

A bus carrying children on a sightseeing tour crashed in western Russia, killing one schoolgirl and injuring eight others, officials said.

The bus was travelling along a Moscow-St Petersburg highway when it hit an obstacle and overturned near the city of Torzhok, about 225 kilometres (140 miles) northwest of the Russian capital, said Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry.

A 17-year old schoolgirl died in the accident and eight other children were taken to hospital with injuries, Beltsov said.

Forty people, 35 of them children, were on the bus.