Australia: Ten dead after wedding bus crashes and rolls in Greta
Ten people are dead and 11 are injured after a bus crashed into a roundabout and rolled in New South Wales, police in Australia say.
The bus had been returning from a wedding when it crashed at Greta, in the Hunter Region of the state, according to local reports.
Emergency services were called just after 11.30pm on Sunday to a roundabout following reports a coach had rolled, a police statement said.
A witness told 7NEWS: “It was a nice day, a pretty good wedding... fairy tale stuff really, it was a nice day, and we went to come back and get drunk, and we got the news that there had been a crash, and we all started panicking."
Jay Suvaal, the mayor of nearby Cessnock, told reporters the crash was “truly horrific.”
“We are a major wedding and tourist destination in the Hunter Valley, and so there will be people from all over the state and the country that have been to these areas and have probably done similar things," he told Network Nine. “I think it will send shock waves right through the broader community.”
NSW Police confirmed initial inquiries indicated 10 people had died, 11 were transported to hospital via helicopter and road, and 18 passengers were uninjured.
Officers said the driver of the bus, a 58-year-old man, was taken to hospital under police guard for mandatory testing and assessment.
Specialist forensic police and crash investigators were carrying out a probe at the scene, a statement from the force added.
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