Double-decker Megabus crashes into Illinois bridge

LITCHFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A double-decker Megabus traveling from Chicago to Kansas City has slammed into a concrete bridge-support pillar along a southern Illinois interstate.

There's no immediate word of injuries from the Thursday wreck of the discount charter bus. But television helicopter footage from the scene shows numerous emergency vehicles surrounding the bus and rescue crews climbing ladders to reach inside its smashed front end.

At least one person could be seen being wheeled on a stretcher to an ambulance. Others were being tended to along the roadside.

Amanda Byers, a spokeswoman for MegaBus, says the bus was carrying 81 passengers when it crashed near Litchfield, about 55 miles northeast of St. Louis. The bus also was to stop in St. Louis and Columbia, Mo.

The interstate is shut down in both directions.