Hanoi - At least nine people were killed and twenty were seriously injured after a train and a bus collided on the outskirts of Hanoi, police said Monday.

Hanoi traffic police said the collision occurred Sunday at an intersection in Hanoi's Thuong Tin district. The crossing signal at the intersection was broken.

The train threw the bus to one side, where it hit and killed a motorcyclist. Six passengers on the bus were killed immediately, and two more died later in hospital.

A doctor at Hanoi's Vietnam-German Hospital, who declined to be identified, said some of the injured passengers remained in critical condition.

The police-run newspaper An Ninh Thu Do reported Monday that the bus had been carrying 29 people to an engagement ceremony. The accident held up traffic on Vietnam's National Highway 1 for some two hours. (dpa)