Crash involving junior hockey league team in Canada claims multiple lives

pulse

April 7, 2018 6:18 AM

Multiple people were killed Friday evening when a tractor-trailer collided with a bus filled with members of a junior hockey league team on their way to a playoff game, the Canadian authorities said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that they had also confirmed “a number of” serious injuries resulting from the crash but that they could not yet say how many people had died.

“We cannot confirm numbers at this time,” Inspector Ted Munro said at a news conference.

The accident happened about 5 p.m. on a highway about 18 miles north of Tisdale, Saskatchewan, the police said; the wreck caused major delays.

The team involved was identified as the Humboldt Broncos in a tweet by the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. Players for the Broncos range in age from 16 to 21, according to the team’s roster.

The team had been scheduled to play the Nipawin Hawks on Friday night.

“Tonight’s game is canceled,” the Hawks said on Twitter.

In a Facebook post, Scott Moe, the premier of Saskatchewan, said his province was grieving.

“Words cannot describe the loss that we feel tonight,” he said. “The news I have heard is difficult to comprehend.”

In a tweet, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, said he could not imagine what the parents of the players were going through. “My heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy.”

Heath officials were directing relatives of the Broncos to the Apostolic Church in the town of Nipawin.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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