At least 54 people, mostly schoolgirls, have died after their bus burst into flames in a head-on collision with a truck in East Java.

An Indonesian high school girl (C) cries for her friend, who was killed after a traffic accident killed 54 people, mostly high school girls. [AP]

The girls were returning from a week-long field trip on the Indonesian resort island of Bali when the accident happened late Wednesday.

It is Indonesia's worst traffic accident this year.

Police say faulty brakes may have caused the truck to race downhill, weaving across the two-lane highway and hitting the busload of students.

A second vehicle, a minivan, then ploughed into the back of the bus on the busy highway near Situbondo, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta.

The tour bus burst into flames, trapping passengers inside. Survivors told police a handful of students and teachers escaped by smashing open bus windows but they were unable to open the exit doors at the back.

The bus and truck were completely gutted by fire, and police rescue crews and volunteers worked through the night, pulling out dozens of charred bodies.

So far, officials say 49 of those killed were young students.

The drivers of the bus and minivan survived with injuries. But police say the driver of the truck has not been found and is wanted for questioning.

"The police are not jumping to any conclusions as to who caused this tragic accident, but we will conduct an investigation based on the facts we find in the field," East Java Police Commander Heru Susanto told local television station SCTV.

Most of those who died were burned to death, hospital officials said. Police warned that many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and may only be identified through DNA testing.

The school bus was part of a three-vehicle convoy returning more than 100 students from the Yapemda Junior High School in Yogyakarta.

The other two buses returned safety to the school Thursday morning.

Police escorted distraught parents to a hospital near the scene of the accident to help identify the bodies. Yapemda school officials temporarily closed classes for mourning.

Accidents are common on Indonesia's notoriously dangerous highways, where safety measures are often ignored.

Trucks and buses race through the country's two-lane highways at blinding speeds, with buses often packed with more passengers than rules allow.

Police say, however, that the high death toll makes this the worst accident this year.

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