At least 17 killed in Bulgaria bus crash

SOFIA, Bulgaria --A truck collided with a bus Thursday in northeastern Bulgaria, sending both vehicles off a bridge into a river and killing at least 17 people, police and doctors said.

Eleven people, including the truck driver, were injured in the crash in the town of Byala, some 200 miles northeast of the capital, Sofia.

The bus plunged 45 feet into the Yantra River, said fire chief Nikolai Nikolov.

Rescue teams were searching the river for survivors, but thick fog was hampering the effort, police said.

Authorities did not know how many people were on the bus. "It was a town bus and we have no means to check how many people were traveling on it," police spokeswoman Keri Boyadzhiyska said.