At least nine people, including a child, have died after a truck collided with a minivan in the central Russian Republic of Chuvashia, the republican emergencies center said on Sunday.
The road accident occurred at 14:55 p.m. Moscow time (10:55 a.m. GMT) on Sunday in the Tsivilsky district near the village of Chirichkasy, on the 697th km of the M7 federal highway.
"A Scania truck collided with a Volkswagen minivan. All the dead are the minivan's passengers," the republican emergencies center said.
At the same time, the Volga area emergencies center has said that three children have been killed in the accident.
Rescuers and traffic police have arrived at the scene. The circumstances of the accident are being investigated.
According to statistics, 30,000 people lose their lives in traffic accidents every year in Russia due to the poor state of highway networks and reckless driving.
