KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A bus crashed through a barrier in southern Malaysia and rammed into several vehicles, killing 12 people and injuring at least 35 others, police said.
The Delima Express bus skidded and hit the rear of a van late Sunday before crashing through the barrier onto the other side of the highway in southern Negeri Sembilan state, a district police spokesman said.
It then collided with another bus and three other vehicles coming from the opposite direction, said the spokesman who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The dead included three Myanmar nationals, and the rest were Malaysians, including the Delima Express driver, the official said. At least 35 others were hospitalized, including six who suffered critical injuries, he said. No further details were immediately available.
The Star daily newspaper quoted several bus passengers who said the Delima Express was speeding before the crash.
"I felt the bus spinning, and before I knew it, we had already crashed through the guardrail and onto the path of oncoming traffic," Nur Najlaa Aqilah Mohamad Ghazali, a 19-year-old bus passenger who suffered light injury, told the paper.
Malaysia has a high-quality highway system with a speed limit of 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour, but speeding and unsafe driving are common. (AP)