At least five people were killed and about a dozen injured in an accident involving a coach on a German motorway near Leipzig on Wednesday, March 27.

The coach came off the A9 motorway and overturned in the morning between Wiedemar and the Schkeuditzer Kreuz motorway junction, police said.

Emergency services attended to the injured at the scene and the motorway was closed in both directions, German authorities said.

The coach belonged to the German travel company Flixbus and was on its way from Berlin to Zurich, Flixbus said in a statement.

There were 53 passengers and two drivers on board, the budget operator added.

“The exact circumstances of the accident are not yet known,” Flixbus said.

“We are, of course, working closely with the local authorities and the emergency services on site and will do everything in our power to clarify the cause of the accident quickly and completely.”