Seventeen people were injured and four were killed when a school bus full of children collided with another bus in the Stavropol region, local Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Oleg Degtyarev said.
Media reports said late Sunday that a fifth victim had died in the accident, but an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman told Interfax that the information was false.
A photo released by the ministry showed a yellow bus with the word “children” written on the front, partially crushed and without glass in the windows lying in a field.
Police said the school bus rolled over and flew into a ditch after the collision near the city of Pyatigorsk.
“According to current information, three children died in the accident and 18 people were injured. The victims’ ages are being verified,” the spokesman said.
The school bus belongs to a music school in the neighboring republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, police said, RIA-Novosti reported.