A 17-year-old karateka and his coach from Russia’s Rostov Oblast (district) died in the accident involving a passenger bus heading from Moscow to Yerevan, Mir 24 TV channel reports, citing the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Overall, five people died and another 27 were wounded as a result of the accident.

“We were all asleep at the moment of the accident. We woke up because of the noise and overthrow. I was trembling,” a bus passenger, Hasmik Harutyunyan, said.  

“We began breaking the windows with hammers and got out. Then we took out a window and began helping the guys to save the others,” said another bus passenger, Stepan Khachatryan.

According to ascertained information, three of the casualties are Russian citizens, two others being Armenians.

The list of the casualties is as follows:

Lunoyan A.P. (born in 1960), Armenian citizen

Poghosyan Y.S. (born in 1960), Armenian citizen

Lazukin A.V. (born in 1968), Russian citizen

Panchenko V.M., (born in 1973), Russian citizen

Mamchenko S.S., (born in 1999), Russian citizen

A criminal case has been launched into the accident under Article 264 of the Russian Criminal Code.

As reported earlier, a passenger bus, which was heading from Moscow to Yerevan, collided with a truck, on Friday at around 4:30am, on the Vladikavkaz-Beslan bypass. As a result, five people, including the bus driver were killed, and another 27 sustained injuries.