Moscow, May 14 (IANS): At least three children were killed and another 15 injured after a school bus collided with another bus in Russia, officials said.

The accident took place Sunday afternoon in Stavropol Territory in south Russia, the regional emergencies centre said.

The bus of a music school carrying 22 passengers, including 18 children, to a local music festival collided with another bus during an overtaking manoeuvre, overturned and fell into a five-metre ditch, RIA Novosti reported.

Four people died straight away -- two children and two women. One girl succumbed in a hospital while 15 children and two adults, a teacher and the bus driver, were injured.

Other participants in the music festival named Children of the Caucasus paid a minute of silence to the victims, Russian children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said.

According to statistics, 30,000 people lose their lives in traffic accidents every year in Russia due to the poor state of highways and reckless driving.