As many as 13 people were killed and 30 injured in a coach crash on Monday on an eastern German motorway.

The coach, carrying old-aged pensioners, ran off the road and plunged down an embankment on the A14 motorway between the cities of Magdeburg and Dresden, German news agency DPA reported, quoting police.

About 48 adults were aboard the coach, which started its journey in the western German town of Ibbenbueren to Dresden.

Helicopters and police rushed to the scene to help send the injured to hospital.

The cause of the accident was not clear, police said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2007)