More than 20 children feared dead in Thailand bus crash

A bus carrying dozens of major college kids has crashed and caught hearth simply exterior the Thai capital of Bangkok.

Sixteen kids and three academics are reported to have escaped, however 22 pupils and three academics are nonetheless unaccounted for, in keeping with the nation’s transport minister.

Thailand’s prime minister mentioned the accident resulted in “deaths and accidents” – however the actual variety of fatalities has not but been confirmed.

Images present the bus fully destroyed by the fireplace. Investigators are mentioned to have been unable to enter the automobile due to the warmth, in keeping with native media.

Eight of the 19 individuals who managed to flee have been despatched to hospital for remedy, a well being ministry official mentioned.

The bus was one in all three that have been carrying kids and academics getting back from a college discipline journey within the northern province of Uthai Thani.

Transport Minister Suriyahe Juangroongruangkit mentioned the bus was powered by “extraordinarily dangerous” compressed pure gasoline.

“It is a very tragic incident,” Mr Suriyahe instructed reporters on the scene.

“The ministry should discover a measure… if potential, for passenger automobiles like this to be banned from utilizing this kind of gas as a result of it’s extraordinarily dangerous.”

Thailand’s prime minister, in the meantime, has ordered ministers to go to the scene.

“As a mom, I wish to categorical my deepest regrets to the households of these killed,” Paetongtarn Shinawatra mentioned.

“The federal government might be accountable for all of the medical prices and the compensation for these killed,” she added.

Piyalak Thinkaew, who’s main the search, mentioned the our bodies of these killed have been so badly burned, it was laborious to establish them.

“A few of the our bodies we discovered have been very, very small,” he instructed reporters on the scene, including that the fireplace began on the entrance of the bus.

“The children’ intuition was to flee to the again so the our bodies have been there,” he mentioned.

The bus was travelling on a freeway into Bangkok when a tyre burst, sending it crashing right into a barrier, a rescue employee mentioned in footage broadcast on native tv.

Video footage from the scene confirmed flames engulfing the bus because it burned beneath an overpass, big clouds of dense black smoke billowing into the sky.

The motive force has fled the positioning of the crash however authorities are assured he might be tracked down, in keeping with Thailand’s Inside Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who spoke to reporters on the scene.

The ages of the youngsters on board stay unclear, however the college has pupils between three and 15 years previous.

Thailand has one of many worst highway security information on the planet, with unsafe automobiles and poor driving contributing to roughly 20,000 fatalities a 12 months.