A 10-year-old girl was killed when a bus carrying 16 children fell into a river in the Khabarovsk Territory in Russia's Far East, local emergency services said on Wednesday.

The bus was parked at a dock on Tuesday to meet the children after a river tour in the village of Belgo. After driver stepped out of the vehicle, leaving the engine in gear and the handbrake off, the bus began to move, and toppled into the water.

Fifteen children were rescued from the bus.

A regional police spokesman told RIA Novosti that the driver had his license suspended in January this year for drunk driving, for a period of 18 months, and that the bus had been put out of service.