Five killed in bus crash in Ireland

Five teenage girls were killed yesterday when their schoolbus overturned in a horrific crash on a narrow Irish country road, police said.

A number of children who were trapped in the wreckage after the accident near the County Meath town of Navan were pulled free by rescue workers.

Helicopters were flown to the crash, where the bus ended up on its side on a bend. Ambulances rushed the injured to local hospitals.

"Five teenage girls were killed in the crash. There were a total of 51 children on the bus. They have now all been taken to local hospitals. No one is left on the bus now," a police spokesman told Reuters.

"It's pretty much a cleaning up operation now. There's still fire engines right across the road, the bus is still on its side," a witness said at the scene northwest of Dublin.

A spokeswoman for Bus Eireann said the bus had been carrying pupils from four schools in the Navan area.

"We don't know the reason for the accident," she told Reuters. "The reports that we are getting are that... two other vehicles were involved."