Two people killed after bus carrying children crashes in eastern France

Two people have died after a bus carrying passengers including schoolchildren left the road and crashed in eastern France, according to French authorities cited by the BBC and Sky News. Sky News identified the victims as a seven-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy. The crash happened at about 07:00 local time on Friday in Lent, a town between Lyon and Bourg-en-Bresse.

The bus was travelling between those two cities and carried 43 passengers, including 15 children, according to the Bourg-en-Bresse prosecutor’s office. Three people were in critical condition and at least 13 others suffered minor injuries, the BBC reported. The injured driver was taken to hospital and had not yet been questioned by police.

French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said initial tests found no alcohol or drugs in the driver’s blood. The BBC said the victims had been identified by authorities, but noted that reports differed over the age of the girl. Sky News gave her age as seven.

The reports supplied do not explain the discrepancy beyond identifying the differing accounts. The town’s mayor, Yves Cristin, told French media that the bus left the road and struck a tree in a ditch. He said people were in shock when he arrived minutes after the collision and that the side of the bus had been torn away.

He believed those seated on that side appeared to have suffered the most serious injuries. Cristin told Le Figaro that there had been some fog and a wet road, but no major difficulties. Fabrice Pannekoucke, head of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, said there was no particular explanation or interpretation available at that stage.

The cause of the crash has not been established. The prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into suspected road homicide and aggravated road-traffic injuries. More than 100 firefighters and 50 gendarmes attended the scene, while medical helicopters transported seriously injured people to a specialist hospital.

The local town hall was opened as a shelter and coordination centre. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with the victims, injured passengers and their families and thanked rescue teams. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu also called the crash tragic and thanked firefighters, medical personnel and police.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray referred to the difficulty of children being involved in accidents of this kind. Tabarot said the bus was not operated exclusively for school routes, although many schoolchildren were aboard. Investigators are expected to examine the circumstances in which the vehicle left the road, but the supplied reports contain no confirmed explanation for the crash.