Two killed after tourist bus overturns on German highway

Two people were killed and many others injured when a bus carrying Filipino tourists overturned on the A96 highway in southern Germany on Sunday, according to German police. The bus was travelling from Milan to Munich, where the passengers were due to attend Oktoberfest. Police said it left the highway at 5:41 a.m.

local time and overturned. No other vehicles were involved. There were 33 tourists and two Italian drivers on board.

Both drivers were uninjured. Police initially faced difficulties confirming the number of passengers, describing the early response as chaotic. Six injured passengers were flown to hospitals, including one who was believed to be in a life-threatening condition.

Two others were taken by ambulance, while 22 were treated at the scene before several were later transported to hospital. Police identified one of the dead as a 58-year-old Filipino citizen; the second person had not been identified in the supplied material. The driver who was at the wheel is being investigated for negligent homicide.

A police spokeswoman said such an investigation was standard procedure and did not establish guilt. The cause of the crash remained unclear. The public prosecutor’s office commissioned an accident reconstruction expert to examine what happened.

Police said it was too early to draw conclusions. More than 200 firefighters, medics and police officers attended the scene, and the highway was later reopened to traffic. Oktoberfest, which runs this year from September 19 to October 4, had attracted about 3.8 million visitors by its halfway point, organisers said.