KUALA LUMPUR: A bus carrying university students back to their campus smashed into a minivan in northern Malaysia on Monday, killing at least 15 people, police and rescue services said.
Thirteen victims died at the scene near the town of Gerik, on the busy East-West Highway near the Thai border, while two died in hospital.
The accident is the deadliest in more than a decade on Malaysia’s hazardous roads.
“It looked like the bus had lost control and hit the (minivan) from behind,” Perak State Police Chief Hisam Nordin said.
Images from the scene taken by the fire and rescue department showed a green bus overturned on its right side with a smashed rear end cover, while the red minivan had slid into a ditch, with its windows blown out.
“Some victims managed to get out on their own, some victims were thrown out while others were still (trapped) in the bus,” the Perak state disaster management authority said in a statement.
Rescuers had to use a hydraulic cutter to free people from the bus.
The death toll included 14 students from the Sultan Idris Education University, while the last victim was a bus attendant, the emergency services said.
Thirty-three others were injured, with seven in critical condition taken to hospital, it added.
Most of the victims were aged between 21 and 23. They were traveling from the town of Jerteh in northeastern Malaysia when the accident happened shortly after 1:00 am (1700 GMT on Sunday).
Police Chief Hisam said officers were investigating whether the crash “involved human negligence or if it was a technical issue.”
A witness told the New Straits Times it “was a chaotic scene with students screaming and crying for help.”
“They were pinned between the wreckage,” the witness, identified as Razali, told the paper.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim ordered the Higher Education Ministry to help the victim’s families and said he and his wife Azizah were “deeply saddened” by the tragedy.
“Heartbreaking disasters like these that are repeated often should be a lesson to all to be careful and not to rush,” Anwar wrote on Facebook.
“Your lives are too precious and can’t be replaced,” he added.
Malaysia has a high rate of traffic accidents, with an average of 18 people killed on the roads each day, according to government figures.
The East-West Highway, which connects the two seaboards of the Malaysian peninsula, is plagued by accidents, with frequent collisions between animals and vehicles.
Malaysia worst bus disaster happened in 2013 when an express bus plunged down a ravine northeast of Kuala Lumpur, killing 37.