Russian bus and lorry in fatal Moscow crash Published duration 13 July 2013

media caption Both of the drivers were hurt and have been taken to hospital, say Russian media reports

At least 18 people have been killed in a crash between a bus and a lorry carrying gravel in a Moscow suburb.

Another 25 people were injured in the incident, which happened in the village of Oznobishin, about 40km (25 miles) south of the Russian capital.

Images from the scene showed the lorry lying on its side and the bus broken in half by the impact.

The city authorities have declared next Monday a day of mourning for the victims.

Russian news reports said the drivers of both vehicles were among those taken to hospital.

At least 30 ambulance crews attended the scene, with some of the casualties flown to hospital by helicopter.

A child was reportedly one of the fatalities.

'Bodies under gravel'

Petr Biryukov, Moscow's deputy mayor, said the truck had "smashed, there's no other way of putting it, into the bus that was following its route".

"It flipped over and all the 12 cubic meters of gravel poured into the bus.

"Rescuers had to extract the dead and the injured under very bad conditions from under the piles of gravel," he said.

Russia's Ria Novosti news agency quoted one witness as saying the driver of the lorry had overtaken several vehicles at speed and was on the wrong side of the road when it crashed into the bus, which had 60 people on board.

Other witnesses reported seeing horrific injuries among the passengers.

The site posted video footage recorded from an approaching car which appeared to show the moment of impact.

The head of Moscow's health department, Georgy Golukhov, told Ria Novosti that some of the victims' injuries had been more severe because they were hit by the gravel which was thrown from the lorry's trailer onto the crash site.