Bus crash kills at least 15, mostly university students

A bus carrying university students back to their campus smashed into a minivan in northern Malaysia yesterday, killing at least 15 people, police and rescue services said.

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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.