One person was killed, and 16 others were injured when a bus overturned on Highway 40 near Kiryat Gat on Saturday night, Israel's emergency response service, Magen David Adom (MDA) said in a statement.
Israeli media later identified the victim as Liron Avitan, the son of Chief-Superintendent Yosef Avitan, a senior police officer in the southern District police, who arrived at the scene as part of his role and discovered his son had been killed.
MDA medics and paramedics arrived at the scene and reported a 22-year-old man with multiple injuries was dead on scene. The medics treated and evacuated 12 injured people to Soroka Hospital, including three moderately injured: a 16-year-old boy with a head injury, a 29-year-old with a chest injury, and a 43-year-old with injuries to his limbs. The other nine people were lightly injured.
According to the MDA report, the 22-year-old who was killed was trapped under the bus after it flipped onto its left side, and he suffered severe injuries.
"We performed medical assessments, but unfortunately, his injuries were critical, and we had to pronounce him dead at the scene," MDA paramedic Ronen Shunam Halevi and senior MDA paramedic Aviran Goshen said in a statement.
Police opened an investigation
Investigators were dispatched to the scene and opened an investigation into the situation, Israel Police announced in a statement.
The road is currently closed, and police officers are directing traffic to alternate routes.
This is a developing story.