Four French Schoolchildren Killed as Train Plows Into Bus

Four adolescents were killed when a train smashed into a school bus on a level crossing outside the town of Perpignan in southwestern France on Thursday. Images from the scene showed the bus split in two, with a long line of emergency vehicles on an approach to the crossing, Reuters reported.

Another 20 people were injured in the crash, 11 of them seriously, according to French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who traveled immediately to the scene. Most of the injured were schoolchildren aboard the bus, aged 13-17. Philippe told reporters the authorities were focused on getting accurate information to families, a process “made difficult by the question of identification of those who have died and some of the injured.”

The train was carrying 25 passengers and traveling at 80 kmh, the regulatory speed for the section of track where the collision occurred, a spokeswoman for the national SNCF railway told Reuters. Three train passengers sustained relatively minor injuries, according to the interior ministry.