Twelve passengers, including a seven-year-old girl, died when their minibus collided with a heavy goods truck on a French highway known as the “road of death”.
The crash occurred late Thursday night as the minibus was travelling from Switzerland to Portugal, taking passengers home for the Easter holidays.
A statement from the local authority said: “The twelve passengers of the minibus, who were all Portuguese, are dead.”
Authorities said the minibus swerved for an unknown reason and slammed head-first into the truck on a notorious traffic blackspot near the town of Moulins.
The minibus driver and two Italian drivers of the truck suffered serious injuries but are expected to survive.
An initial inquiry said the minibus driver was not under the influence of alcohol, and police have opened an investigation into the cause of the crash.
A source close to the investigation described the road as “quite monotonous”.
He added: “The speed limit is 90 kilometres an hour. There are those who are impatient and those who fall asleep.”
The dangerous road only has one lane and four passing zones in the area, with the source saying
“they’ve been talking about adding a second lane for 40 years”.
A local official said: “It’s the deadliest road in France. When you add it up, we’ve had 15 deaths in a year.”
Locals have nicknamed the treacherous stretch the “road of death”.
A local village hall was being used as a temporary morgue after the horror crash and the road was
closed.