Death toll from French school bus train crash rises to six

The death toll from a crash between a school bus and a train in southern France rose to six today after two 11-year-old girls succumbed to their injuries.

Four teenagers had died on Thursday in the accident at a level crossing in the village of Millas near the city of Perpignan. Eighteen others were injured, including 14 children.

A TER commuter train travelling at around 50mph ploughed into the bus, causing carnage among the party from a high school in nearby Millas. Photos from the scene showed the train derailed and the bus cut in half.

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The death toll from a crash between a school bus and a train in southern France rose to six today after two 11-year-old girls succumbed to their injuries

Four teenagers had died on Thursday in the accident at a level crossing in the village of Millas near the city of Perpignan. Eighteen others were injured, including 14 children

Four teenagers had died on Thursday in the accident at a level crossing in the village of Millas near the city of Perpignan. Eighteen others were injured, including 14 children

A TER commuter train travelling at around 50mph ploughed into the bus, causing carnage among the party from a high school in nearby Millas

A TER commuter train travelling at around 50mph ploughed into the bus, causing carnage among the party from a high school in nearby Millas

The horrific accident happened close to the city of Perpignan when the vehicle 'was caught between barriers' shortly after 4pm

The horrific accident happened close to the city of Perpignan when the vehicle ‘was caught between barriers’ shortly after 4pm

‘The bus was very badly hit,’ the public prosecutor in Perpignan, Jean-Jacques Fagny, said.

All of those seriously injured or killed were all travelling in the bus and of those who suffered minor injuries, three were train passengers, police sources said.

France Bleu regional radio reported that the train ploughed into the rear of the bus. 

Pictures posted on French media showed the bus had been severed in two.

Around 70 emergency workers, backed by four helicopters, were deployed as part of the rescue effort and the crash site was cordoned off to the media.

The smashed remains of the truck near the crash site in Millas, some 530 miles from Paris, where at least six children have died

The smashed remains of the truck near the crash site in Millas, some 530 miles from Paris, where at least six children have died

 The horrific accident happened close to the city of Perpignan, when the vehicle 'was caught between barriers'. Emergency services, pictured, are now dealing with the incident

 The horrific accident happened close to the city of Perpignan, when the vehicle ‘was caught between barriers’. Emergency services, pictured, are now dealing with the incident

The local L’Independant paper cited one of the rail passengers, named only as Barbara, as saying the impact ‘was very powerful and we thought the train was going to derail’.

The reason for the collision was unclear and local politician Robert Olive described the scene as a ‘vision of horror’.

The national railway operator SNCF said that ‘according to witnesses, the level crossing was working as normal’ but that an investigation would be carried out to confirm the cause.

But a French Transport Department spokesman confirmed that there had been ‘regular complaints’ about the crossing. 

Families of the children rushed to the scene to try to get news of their loves ones, a reporter at the scene witnessed.

Firefighters and police work at the site of an accident in Millas, near Perpignan, southern France, on December 14, 2017, after a train crashed into a school bus at a level crossing

Firefighters and police work at the site of an accident in Millas, near Perpignan, southern France, on December 14, 2017, after a train crashed into a school bus at a level crossing

An emergency services vehicle which reads 'accident' is parked on the side of a road with a signpost for Millas

An emergency services vehicle which reads ‘accident’ is parked on the side of a road with a signpost for Millas

The bus, which was carrying around 20 students from a local secondary school, was struck by the train in Millas about 11 miles of the city of Perpignan, close to the Spanish border

The bus, which was carrying around 20 students from a local secondary school, was struck by the train in Millas about 11 miles of the city of Perpignan, close to the Spanish border

President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: ‘All my thoughts for the victims of this terrible accident involving a school bus, as well as their families. The state is fully mobilised to help them.’

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe flew to Millas by helicopter from a meeting in the south-central city of Cahors.

Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne and the head of the SNCF, Guillaume Pepy, were also on their way to the accident site.

‘It’s a terrible event,’ Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said, expressing ‘profound sadness’.

The security department for the Pyrenees area, where the collision took place, said the accident involved a train travelling west from Perpignan to the town of Villefranche de Conflent. 

Video images showed a long line of ambulance and emergency service vehicles near the crossing where the collision occurred 

Video images showed a long line of ambulance and emergency service vehicles near the crossing where the collision occurred 

A video grab showing an emergency services vehicle driving along the road towards the crash site

A video grab showing an emergency services vehicle driving along the road towards the crash site

The accident is the third involving several fatalities on French railways in the past four years.

In 2015, a high-speed TGV train being tested on a stretch of the line between Paris and the eastern city of Strasbourg derailed after hitting a bridge at 243 kilometres-per-hour, killing 11 people onboard.

In 2013, seven people were killed when a commuter train slammed into a station south of Paris. A signalling defect was blamed for that crash.

 



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