Seventeen people were killed when a coach burst into flames after colliding with a lorry on a motorway in the German state of Bavaria on Monday, local newspaper Frankenpost said.

Frankenpost did not identify its source for the information and police were not immediately available to comment when contacted by Reuters. A police spokesman told broadcaster n-tv that 17 people were unaccounted for and he expected several had died.

Thirty-one people were injured, some seriously, police said on Twitter. They said there were 48 people on the bus at the time of the crash.