Several people were feared dead Tuesday after a Polish bus carrying 68 people crashed near the eastern French city of Mulhouse, local officials and the bus's owners said.

"The initial toll is several injured. Several people are still trapped in the bus. Many are feared dead," the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin region said after the accident on a main highway.

The owners of the bus, Polish travel agency Sindbad, which has a fleet of coaches, had chartered it to another company Albatros that ran buses to the French cities of Mulhouse, Cannes, Toulon, Lyon, Marseille and Nice.

Sindbad said in a statement the coach was carrying 65 passengers and three staff members.

"We immediately received aid, the rescue teams were there in minutes and medical care was abundant," a passenger told Poland's TVN24 channel.

The bus was found lying on its side in a ditch on the A36 highway which links France to Germany. Mulhouse is near the German and Swiss borders.

A spokesman for the prefecture did not confirm local media reports that three people had died.

Two emergency rescue services helicopters have been deployed at the scene.