At least 13 people have been killed after a bus carrying European university exchange students crashed on a Spanish motorway between the cities of Barcelona and Valencia.

Most of the 57 people on the bus were students on the Erasmus program who were returning to Barcelona after a trip to a fireworks festival, BBC reports.

According to recent information, the Erasmus students on the coach represented 19 nationalities: France, the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, the UK, Italy, Peru, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, Palestine, Japan and Ukraine, butthe nationalities of the dead have not been confirmed.
The accident occurred near Freginals, 150km (93 miles) south of Barcelona.

Jordi Jane, Catalonia’s regional interior minister, said the driver of the bus “hit the railing on the right and swerved to the left so violently that the bus veered onto the other side of the highway”.

The bus then hit a vehicle coming in the opposite direction, injuring two people inside.

“There were students on board, many of them foreign students studying in Catalonia and in Barcelona who had travelled to Valencia for the Fallas and were returning,” Jane added.