Updated

French police say 15 British teenagers were injured when a bus taking them to Italy crashed into a ditch in eastern France.

An official with the national gendarme service said the bus had been carrying about 50 people, mainly teenagers, when it crashed on the A39 highway near the town of Courlaoux, not far from the Swiss border.

The reason for the crash is unclear, said the official, not authorized to be publicly named.

The teens were from the Cheltenham Bournside School and left Friday from Britain en route to Italy for a weeklong camping trip.