At least six people were killed when a bus carrying an ice hockey team crashed and caught fire in a tunnel in eastern Switzerland on Saturday, police said. The accident occurred in the Viamala road tunnel on the A13 motorway, near the Swiss border with Italy and Austria, when a car swerved to avoid a wheel lost by another vehicle, local media reported.

The bus and car caught fire, filling the tunnel, almost 750 metres long, with smoke that slowed rescue efforts. Police said six people were killed, one person seriously injured and five others hurt. Rescue personnel were still assisting victims several hours after the accident.

The Swiss news agency ATS said the bus was carrying 23 ice-hockey players from the GDT Bellinzona club, based in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. Ciril Lombriser of the Grisons cantonal police most of the hockey players, aged 18 to 30, had escaped injury but declined to specify whether any players were among the dead or injured.

According to ATS, two players were unaccounted for after the accident, but their team mates believed they had fled to safety to the other end of the tunnel.