Police try to identify victims of Canada road crash that killed 15

Police in the Canadian province of Manitoba on Friday were trying to identify the 15 people killed when a truck and a bus collided in one of the country's worst recent road crashes.

Flags at the legislative building flew at half-staff to mark the victims of the collision near the town of Carberry in southwestern Manitoba, 170 km (105 miles) west of Winnipeg.

The small white bus carrying 25 mostly elderly people was burnt to a shell. It had been heading to a casino when the accident happened.

Police said that they had yet to confirm any of the next of kin.

"This is something we have to make sure we get right, it has to be accurate," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Rob Lasson told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The victims were from the town of Dauphin, some 175 km (109 miles) north of Carberry. Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak said, "it's tremendously difficult today for sure", given that no one knew who had been on the bus.

"There's just a sense of foreboding for everybody concerned," he told the CBC. "We don't know what to do."

The truck was operated by the Day & Ross hauling company. In a statement, Chairman William Doherty said the firm would be cooperating fully with the inquiry.

Ron Bretecher, whose parents were on the bus, told reporters his mother had survived the crash but his father was still unaccounted for.

"(My) family's just basically waiting for word. ... It's just very difficult," he said.

Lasson said police would also be looking at videos taken by passersby and talking to witnesses. Both drivers survived the crash but have yet to speak to investigators.

The bus, heading south, was crossing the Trans-Canada highway when it collided with the truck, which was traveling east.

Nirmesh Vadera told the CBC he had been working at a nearby cafe when he went outside and saw a vehicle engulfed in flames.

"The fire was about 10 to 15 feet high and the smoke was almost 20, 30 feet high," Vadera said.

The crash was the worst in Canada since 16 people died in April 2018 after a truck hit a bus transporting a junior hockey team on a rural road in neighboring Saskatchewan.

The inexperienced truck driver in that crash pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving causing death and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2019.