A horrific bus crash leaves a dozen dead, including ten children

The young victims were believed to aged between 12 and 14 in the crash which came as the group were travelling back to their home in Tyumen after an acrobatics competition in regional capital Khanty-Mansiysk. Two adults were also killed, and there were believed to be many injured among the  survivors. 

Dashcam footage taken from a passing vehicle soon after the crash showed both vehicles off the snow-covered road and in trees. 

An emergency services spokesman said: 'There are 10 ambulances responding to the incident. At the current moment, everyone injured has been taken to the hospital or is in transit.'

Both drivers survived, and tested negative for alcohol, reported police. 

'Victims of the road accident are 12 people, including 10 children and two adults,' said an emergencies source.

The Khanty-Mansiysk region's Prosecutor's Office confirmed that the death toll reached 12.

'All those injured in the accident have been delivered to the district clinical hospital of Khanty-Mansiysk,' said the Emergencies Ministry.

A criminal investigation into the accident has been launched, said the Russian Investigative Committee's spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko.

The bus has 29 people on board, all but three of them children.

The head of the Russian Interior Ministry's traffic police Lt.-Gen. Viktor Nilov has left for the Khanty-Mansi region to assist in the investigation of the accident's circumstances.

Temperatures were around minus 17 C (1.4 Fahrenheit) on Sunday evening, and there were reports of a blizzard.

Siberia has suffered a number of serious bus crashes in recent years raising safety questions.