Four people died on Wednesday when a Flixbus bound for Zurich left the A9 highway near Leipzig and came to rest on its side, police said. The Associated Press reported that the crash happened at about 9:45 a.m., less than two hours after the bus pulled out of Berlin.
Fifty-four people were aboard, two of them drivers: a 62-year-old from the Czech Republic and a 53-year-old from Slovakia. Six passengers were seriously injured and 29 lightly. Many were taken to nearby hospitals.
The death toll shifted during the day. Police first said at least five people had been killed, then revised the number to four. A person first reported dead turned out to be in a life-threatening condition.
Nobody has said yet what caused the crash. Police said nothing pointed to another vehicle being involved, and the driver was not among the dead. The stretch of road is straight, just north of the highway interchange at Schkeuditz, next to the Leipzig/Halle airport.
Police opened an investigation on suspicion of negligent manslaughter. Late Wednesday they could not yet give the ages or nationalities of the victims, because identification of the dead was not complete.
The A9 is a major north-south route linking Berlin with Munich. It was fully reopened Wednesday evening, nearly 12 hours after the crash. Flixbus is the dominant long-distance bus operator in Germany.
