Swiss coach crash kills dozens including 22 children

The bus had been travelling from a skiing holiday camp in Val d’Anniviers to return to Belgium when it smashed into a wall inside a motorway tunnel in Sierre, in the canton of Valais, on Tuesday night.

In addition to the 28 who were killed, including two drivers, another 24 children were reported to have been injured, some seriously. Most of the children were aged around 12, the Belgian foreign ministry said.

Many of the injured passengers were trapped in the wreckage and had to be freed according to police. They were taken to be treated in hospitals in Lausanne, Bern and other Swiss cities after they were flown there by helicopter. Some 200 police, firefighters, doctors and medics worked through the night at the scene.

Distraught

The cause of the accident is not yet known, but it is believed the bus veered and hit a curb before colliding with the right-hand side of the tunnel, hitting a concrete wall head-on. The speed limit inside the tunnel is around 62mph (100 km/h). Initial investigations suggest that the bus was not speeding and that all the children were wearing seatbelts.

Distraught parents, many still unaware whether their children had survived the crash, gathered at the gates of a school in Belgium waiting to be flown to Switzerland on military aircraft.

Belgium has said that it will hold a national day of mourning, while the Swiss parliament observed a minute’s silence to mark the tragedy.

The Saint Lambertus school in the Belgium town of Lommel – one of the two schools involved in the trip cancelled lessons. One of the teachers from the school was among the dead and outside the school colleagues pinned up pupils’ drawings done in tribute to the man they referred to as “Mister Frank”, a sixth-grade teacher.

Leuven Police Commissioner Marc Vranckix said:

“The other children are not going to the class. There is no class today because the teachers are very emotional so it is impossible to give classes.”

The other school to have taken part in the trip was the Stekske school in Lommel.

Investigation

Police said that the pupils had spent the last few days at a ski camp and were on their way back to the Belgian provinces of Brabant, Flanders and Limbourg.

An investigation is now due to be launched.

The Belgian Foreign Ministry said that the bus was one of three hired by a Christian group.

Mr Reynders described the crash as “incomprehensible”. He added: “There were three buses, and only one was in an accident, without any contact with another vehicle.”

The head of the Valais region, Jacques Melly, also expressed his deep sadness at the incident.