AFP/DPA/Berlin

At least 10 people were killed and more than 50 injured yesterday as a coach carrying Polish holidaymakers collided with another Polish minibus near the eastern German city of Dresden, police said.
The collsions happened in the early hours of yesterday morning on the A4 motorway that links Poland and Germany, with police initially putting the death toll at nine and 43 injured.
Police said that passengers were killed in both the smaller minibus and the double-decker coach.
Seven of the people killed have been identified as Polish nationals.
Altogether 68 of the survivors were injured, 39 with serious wounds and 10 who were in critical condition, local fire department chief Andreas Ruempel said.
The accident took place about 2am, police said, when a Polish tour coach crashed into a bus from Ukraine.
Both vehicles were heading in a westward direction, and they collided near the Dresden-Neustadt city district.
The Polish coach skidded, crashed through the median and collided with a Polish minibus on the opposite side of the highway.
According to police, seven of the nine killed were traveling in the minibus, which was on its way home.
Two were in the larger Polish tour coach; they were killed after being plunged by the force of the collision onto an embankment.
A tenth victim died at hospital.
A negligent homicide case has been opened against the tour coach driver from Poland.
A report in the Bild daily said that the crash happened after the driver of the Polish coach fell asleep at the wheel, but a police spokesman could not confirm the report, saying that authorities did not yet know the cause of the accident.
According to Polish travel company Sindbad, which operates the coach, there were 65 passengers on board and three crew. The majority were Polish.
“My thoughts are now with the families of the victims, and with the seriously injured,” Dresden Mayor Helma Orosz told DPA, and thanked emergency services for their rapid response.
The interior minister of the state of Saxony, Markus Ulbig, also expressed his condolences.
Highway A4 was closed around the area of the accident until early afternoon yesterday.
The highway leads from Eisenach in Thuringia to Gorlitz, on the Polish-German border.
Polish bus operator Sinbad set up an information line for the victims’ families.
The Setra 431D-model bus had completed a routine inspection on July 8, according to the company website.
Both operators were experienced employees and the bus was on a regularly scheduled route, it added.
Two replacement buses arrived at crash site at midday, so that surviving passengers could decide whether to continue the trip or return to Poland.