A drunken man racing at 200 kilometres (125 miles) per hour through Moscow traffic killed seven children on Saturday after slamming into a bus stop and dragging it a part of the way down the block.
The emergencies ministry said all the victims -- three boys and four girls -- were teenagers who were enjoying a day off school in a scenic western part of the city near its main film studio.
"According to preliminary information, the driver was under the influence of alcohol," a Moscow police spokesman told the Interfax news agency.
Reports said one bystander was also hospitalised and another three were treated on the spot and released.
The LifeNews.ru website published photographs of a demolished bus shelter whose scattered remains littered the street alongside bodies that were covered with fragments of advertising posters.
"There is a possibility that he was under the influence of drugs as well as alcohol," another police source told the site.
It identified the driver as a 29-year-old male who was being kept under guard at hospital with concussion and various bumps and bruises.
LifeNews.ru wrote that "the entire Moscow police command" had left for the scene of the accident within moments of learning the news.