At least 15 people were killed in northern Malaysia on Monday when a bus transporting university students back to campus collided with a minivan, according to police and rescue officials.
Thirteen victims died at the scene near the town of Gerik, on the busy East-West Highway near the Thai border, while two died in the hospital.
The accident is the deadliest in more than a decade on Malaysia's hazardous roads and came as students were returning to school after an Islamic public holiday over the weekend.
"It looked like the bus had lost control and hit the (minivan) from behind," Perak State Police Chief Hisam Nordin said, based on initial investigations.
Images from the scene taken by the fire and rescue department showed a green bus overturned on its right side with a smashed rear end cover, while the red minivan had slid into a ditch, with its windows blown out.
"Some victims managed to get out on their own, some victims were thrown out while others were still (trapped) in the bus," the Perak state disaster management authority said in a statement.
Rescuers had to use a hydraulic cutter to free people from the bus.
The death toll included 14 students from the Sultan Idris Education University (UPSI), while the last victim was a bus attendant, the emergency services said.
Thirty-three others were injured, with seven in critical condition taken to the hospital, it added.
Police chief Hisam later said some of the injured were discharged. The number of injured still in the hospital was not known.
Most of the victims were aged between 21 and 23. They were travelling from the town of Jerteh in northeast Malaysia when the accident happened shortly after 1 a.m. (5 p.m. GMT on Sunday).
"The journey was fine until I suddenly smelled something like burnt rubber or brakes," said Wan Muhammad Hanifah Wan Azman, 22, an animation student at UPSI.
"The bus then sped up and swerved to avoid a car ahead before flipping over," Wan Muhammad Hanifah told the New Straits Times daily.
Malaysia has a high rate of traffic accidents, with an average of 18 people killed on the roads each day, according to government figures.
The East-West Highway, which connects the two seaboards of the Malaysian peninsula, is plagued by accidents, with frequent collisions between animals and vehicles.
Malaysia's worst bus disaster happened in 2013 when an express bus plunged down a ravine northeast of Kuala Lumpur, killing 37.
