BERLIN -- Police say 40 adults and children have been injured, five of them "very seriously," in a head-on collision involving two public buses in southern Germany.

A spokesman for Bavarian police said the people injured in the Thursday crash outside Nuremberg included school children, but he couldn't immediately say how many.

Police spokesman Bert Rauenbusch told The Associated Press that multiple helicopters were being used to airlift those with the most serious injuries to hospitals.

He says police are investigating the cause of the crash, which also involved a third vehicle.