At least 16 dead after lorry collides with minibus in Russia – police

MOSCOW (Reuters) -At least 16 people died and another three were hospitalised after a lorry collided with a stationary minibus in Russia’s Ulyanovsk region on Sunday, local law enforcement said.

“According to preliminary data, the driver of a heavy goods vehicle did not slow down in good time and hit a stationary minibus,” the Ulyanovsk region’s interior ministry said in a statement.

Road works at the scene of the incident meant the minibus was waiting in a queue to move, it said. “The minibus was wedged between two lorries,” the ministry said.

Video footage broadcast by the police showed the crumpled husk of what appeared to be a minibus sandwiched between two lorries and emergency service workers later inspecting the flattened vehicle.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal investigation, the TASS news agency reported.

TASS quoted a law enforcement source as saying that the lorry driver was among those killed.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by David Clarke and Jan Harvey)