BREAKING NEWS: Bus ploughs into Moscow underground station killing four people

At least four people have died after a bus came off the road and hurtled down a set of stairs leading to a metro station.



Horrifying video footage from the scene posted on social media showed a bus veering off the road and plunging down the steps of a pedestrian underpass, crushing several people beneath its wheels.



It happened on Kutuzovsky Avenue, near the Slavyansky Bulvar metro station in Moscow.



Driver Viktor Tikhonov claimed his vehicle was trapped in gear as he tried to move the bus - and he couldn't help it careering down into the underpass.



'I came to Slavyanskaya boulevard bus station, and there were 3 passengers inside,' he said.



'I was supposed to wait for 15 minutes before getting back en route.



'Another bus came to the station, I wanted to move a bit to give the other driver a bit of space.



'I took the hand break off, but couldn't do anything else as the bus drove off.



'I couldn't stop it. The bus has automatic gear, so there was nothing I could do.'



Police confirmed one of the victims was a 17-year-old girl on her way to music school and also killed was a man named as Artem Karpov, 27.



Another victim was named Yelena Mikhailova and the fourth was a woman aged around 50.



An unnamed emergency services source told the TASS news agency that the number of fatalities had risen to five people, though this was unconfirmed.



There were also unconfirmed reports that some 15 people had been injured.



The Interfax news agency said investigators were looking into whether the incident had occurred as a result of a technical fault with the bus.



Ten ambulances, fire service personnel, and three medivac helicopters were on the scene, agencies reported.



Mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, took to Twitter to express his condolences to the families and friends of the victim.