Fifteen people have been confirmed dead after a bus and truck collided on a highway in Veracruz this morning.

Authorities said the accident occurred at 10:25am on a stretch of the Puebla-Veracruz highway in Maltrata, a municipality about 20 kilometers east of Orizaba.

Both vehicles overturned and burst into flames. Most of the dead were bus passengers trapped inside the burning vehicle. The two occupants of the truck were also reportedly killed.

Authorities said the death toll could go higher because of the serious condition of some of the 35 people who were injured.

Paramedics from Ciudad Mendoza, Orizaba, Ixtaczoquitlan and Maltrata attended the crash scene and transported victims to several different hospitals in the area.

State, federal and municipal police also attended the accident as well as firefighters, who extinguished the burning vehicles. The highway was closed in both directions.

According to some media reports, the bus lost its brakes before slamming into the semi-trailer.

The newspaper Milenio reported that the passengers in the bus were parishioners from two different Catholic churches in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, who were returning home after visiting the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Source: El Sol de Cordoba (sp), E-Consulta (sp), Milenio (sp), La Jornada (sp)