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Four people have been killed and more than 40 injured in a motorway crash involving a coach near the east German city of Leipzig, police say.

The FlixBus coach veered to the right on the busy A9 autobahn before falling on to its side.

It had left Berlin with two drivers and 52 passengers and was on its way to Nuremberg en route to Zurich, the company confirmed.

Officials in the state of Saxony said their thoughts were with the victims.

Initial reports spoke of five deaths but police later confirmed four with a fifth person in a critical condition.

In all, six people were seriously injured and 29 received light injuries.

FlixBus, founded in Munich in 2011, runs a network of long-distance coach services in Europe, America and Asia.

The company said the accident happened on Wednesday at about 10:00 (09:00 GMT) on the A9, the north-south motorway from Berlin to Munich. The 107 service bus was two hours into its southbound journey at the time of the crash at a junction near Leipzig/Halle Airport, to the north-west of the city.

Police told German media that no other vehicle had been involved in the incident.

"The exact circumstances of the accident are not yet known," the company said in a statement, adding that the long-distance service was being run on behalf of FlixBus. "Our thoughts are with all those affected by this accident and their families."

Police said rescue helicopters and a large number of ambulances had been immediately called to the scene.

Local hospitals were told to prepare for a major emergency. Both carriageways on the autobahn were closed near the Schkeuditzer Kreuz interchange.

Coaches have crashed in the past on the A9 motorway near Leipzig, most recently in December. A woman was killed in a coach accident on the A9 in 2019, some 20km (12 miles) south of Wednesday's crash in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.