Twelve killed as Polish bus veers off Hungarian motorway

Twelve people were killed and dozens more injured when a bus carrying Polish pilgrims veered off a Hungarian motorway and into a ditch.

Police said the bus overturned after coming off the M3 motorway, which connects Hungary’s capital Budapest with the north-eastern city of Nyíregyháza, at around 01:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday).

Officers believe the driver fell asleep at the wheel. He has been taken into custody.

Thirty-five out of the 57 passengers and two drivers onboard have been rescued by firefighters so far, state media reports.

Emergency services had been attempting to lift the rear axle of the 24-tonne bus to remove the people trapped underneath before cranes arrived to lift the whole vehicle, according to Hungarian news agency MTI.

Hungary’s ambulance service said it had treated one person with life-threatening injuries, nine people with serious injuries and a further 37 people with minor injuries.

The country’s Prime Minister Péter Magyar offered his “sincere condolences” to the families of the victims and wished those injured a speedy recovery.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk echoed his sentiments, adding he had decided to send a “special” Polish aircraft with foreign ministry officials and medical services.

“We are together in this difficult moment,” he added.

The bus had been returning from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and had been carrying pilgrims from Poland’s southernmost region of Podkarpacie, according to Polish news agency PAP.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said his Hungarian counterpart had told him police had already begun questioning the bus driver.