PH
Gilles Savary, lawmaker from the region, said on BFM television that a bus company from the town of Libourne was leading the group on a tourist trip. The bus collided with a truck near the village of Puisseguin on Friday, and authorities say at least 40 people were killed.
Savary called it one of the worst crashes in recent years in the region.
An official with the national gendarme service said the crash occurred near the town of Puisseguin, and that death toll may have been so unusually high because the bus caught fire.
The official said scores of emergency workers in the region have been mobilized to help. The official was not authorised to be publicly named.
Europe-1 radio reported that the bus was carrying primarily elderly people. It was not immediately clear how many people were on the bus, or their nationalities or other details.
