A speeding bus has veered off the road and fallen into a pond, killing at least 14 schoolchildren in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, police said.
Local villagers fished out 14 bodies from the pond next to the road in the small town of Raghavpuram, said S.A. Huda, state director-general of police.
Police and volunteers helped rescue some of the children from the bus, which was partly submerged. There were at least 40 children in the bus when it crashed, Huda said.
The bus driver lost control of the vehicle when he swerved to avoid a head-on collision with a motorcyle, Huda said.
Raghavpuram is about 250km east of the state capital, Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, 15 people were killed when a train collided with an overcrowded taxi minivan at an unmanned railroad crossing in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
Police spokesman Surendra Srivastava says the taxi driver is suspected of ignoring a signal that the train was approaching and crossing the rail tracks.
The minivan had capacity for 10 people but was carrying 19 when the train slammed into its rear Tuesday morning and threw it off the track near Hathras, about 350km southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.
The driver and 14 passengers were killed on the spot. The four others are being treated at a hospital for injuries.
The taxi passengers had been returning to their village after a funeral.
India has the world's highest road death toll, with more than 110,000 people dying each year in accidents commonly caused by speeding, overcrowding and poor vehicle and road maintenance, police say.
