By Muzaffer Cagliyaner, Ahmet Erkan Yigitsozlu

OSMANIYE, (AA): Twelve passengers were killed and 23 others injured when an intercity bus plunged into an irrigation channel in southern Turkey’s Osmaniye province Sunday, health sources told Anadolu Agency.

According to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, the bus was carrying students, parents and teachers, when it fell into the channel in the vicinity of Cevdetiye Village on Osmaniye-Kozan Highway.

The cause of the incident remains unknown.

Many ambulances and rescue teams were dispatched to the scene. The injured were referred to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Rescue teams were carrying out a search-and-rescue operation in the channel to see if there were any missing passengers.

*Anadolu Agency Correspondent Servet Gunerigok contributed to this report from Ankara.
[Photo: Civilians try to rescue people from a bus, carrying primary school students, teachers and parents, toppling over irrigation channel in Osmaniye, Turkey on June 05, 2016. Photographer: Ahmet Erkan Yiğitsözlü/AA]