Two more students died Friday after a regional train sliced open a school bus in southern France, bringing the overall death toll to six.
Authorities in the Pyrénées-Orientales region announced the new deaths a day after the crash at a crossing close to the Spanish border. French media said the dead were two 11-year-old girls.
Four other children aged 12 or 13 died Thursday, and 16 others and the bus driver were injured. Philippe Vignes, the Pyrénées-Orientales chief, told BFM television that several children and the bus driver remained in serious condition on Friday.
French authorities said all victims had been identified and their families notified.
The bus was carrying students aged 11 to 15 from the Christian Bourquin school in the village of Millas, near Perpignan in southern France. The school opened its doors Friday to offer counselling for grieving students and families.
Investigators were still working to determine the cause of the crash. Vignes said he could not say whether the railway barriers meant to stop vehicles from driving onto the tracks when a train is coming were open or closed.
“There are contradictory rumours,” he said. “We need to be very careful.”
The school bus was ripped in half as a result of the crash. (Matthieu Ferri/France Bleu/Associated Press)
Vignes told reporters overnight that investigators would look into reports that the batteries in the automatic train gate system had been stolen.
Gaelle Le Fauche, an official from France’s national rail authority, SNCF, told The Associated Press the train was carrying 25 people, including passengers and crew, and all were accounted for and being offered counselling. She said the train normally travels at 80 km/h at that location.
