Photo: AP

At least 14 people have been killed after a bus carrying foreign exchange students crashed on a motorway between the cities of Barcelona and Valencia, the BBC reports.

Most of the 57 people on board the bus were students on the Erasmus programme who were returning to Barcelona after a trip to a fireworks festival.

Photographs from the scene show a white roofed coach lying on its side, surrounded by emergency vehicles.

The accident occurred near Freginals, some 150km south of Barcelona.