Russian officials say at least 17 people have been killed after a train collided with a bus at a railway crossing east of Moscow, reported Radio Free Europe.

Regional police said the collision occurred at around 3:30 a.m. local time on October 6 near a train station close to the city of Vladimir.

At least one child was among the dead and at least five injured people were transported to hospital after the accident near the city, which is located some 190 kilometers east of Moscow.

The bus, which Russian news agencies said had license plates from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, attempted to cross the tracks despite a red light, the regional Interior Ministry branch said.

A spokeswoman for regional investigators said at least 17 people were killed in the accident, which occurred around 100 kilometers east of the Russian capital.

The state-run TASS news agency, meanwhile, quoted a regional health official as saying that the death toll had reached 19.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted a spokeswoman for the Vladimir governor's office as saying that the bus was carrying "residents of Uzbekistan," another ex-Soviet state neighboring Kazakhstan.

The spokeswoman, Rita Shlyakhova, said the bus broke down on the railway crossing and that most of the 50 passengers on the bus were sleeping at the time.

"The driver yelled, and 34 people jumped out of the bus to push it," RIA Novosti quoted Shlyakhova as saying. "They survived. Those who stayed in the bus died. It was literally torn apart."

The train involved in the crash was reportedly traveling from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod.

Investigators have opened a probe into the incident, Russian news agencies reported.

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