Canada crash: 14 killed as junior hockey team's bus crashes into truck

Police in Canada have confirmed 14 people were killed after a bus carrying a Canadian hockey team in Saskatchewan collided with a truck.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the accident took place Friday evening on Highway 35, about 19 miles north of Tisdale.

The RCMP said a semi-trailer collided with the bus.

News of the crash was reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The crash was said to involve members of the Humboldt Broncos.

The Broncos were on their way to play a game against the Nipawin Hawks. Photo / Facebook

The Broncos were on their way to play a game at 6pm local time on Friday against the Nipawin Hawks of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, CKOM reported.

The Hawks announced on Facebook that the game had been cancelled.

The SJHL is a second-tier junior league comprising players between the ages of 16 and 21.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted a tweet in which he offered condolences.

"I cannot imagine what these parents are going through, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy, in the Humboldt community and beyond," the premier tweeted late Friday.

"We're just waiting to hear,' Rick Shultz, chairman of the board for the SJHL, told the National Post.

"We just know there has been an accident. It's not very good."

"It's one of the hardest days of my life," Kevin Garinger, president of the Broncos, told TSN.

"There have been multiple fatalities - our whole community is in shock, we are grieving and we will continue to grieve throughout this ordeal as we try to work toward supporting each other."

Garinger said the team includes players from Edmonton, Slave Lake and Airdrie in Alberta and from Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

"It's a horrible accident, my God," Hawks executive Darren Opp said in remarks reported by CTV.

"There's uncles and moms and dads waiting to hear whether their sons and nephews are OK.

"It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible.v

Opp said that coaches and players from the Hawks are waiting for instructions as to how to help the players and their families.

Some 100 parents and grandparents of some of the players on the bus gathered at a church in Nipawin, a local pastor told CTV.

The Humboldt Broncos. Photo / Twitter

"Lots of them are waiting for information," said Pastor Jordan Gadsby of the Apostolic Church.

"Some of the families have gotten information and have gone to be with their kids.

"Some of them are waiting to hear if their kids are alive."

"Words cannot describe the loss that we feel tonight," wrote Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in a Facebook post.

"To the City of Humboldt, the entire Broncos organization, and the families impacted by this tragedy, please know you are in Saskatchewan's hearts."

Rescue officials said that three ambulance helicopters were dispatched to the scene.

Humboldt, the Broncos" hometown, is a city with a population of 6,000.

It is located about 70 miles east of Saskatoon - the largest city and economic hub of the Western Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

Kevin Henry, a coach who runs a hockey school in Prince Albert, said people are in shock.

"It is sort of every parent's worst nightmare.

"This is I would think one of the darkest days in the history of Saskatchewan, especially because hockey is so ingrained in how we grow up here," Henry said.