SWITZERLAND: Injured are treated in hospitals after a coach carrying a Belgian school party home from a ski trip crashes into the wall of a tunnel killing 28 people, mostly children
Record ID:
382778
SWITZERLAND: Injured are treated in hospitals after a coach carrying a Belgian school party home from a ski trip crashes into the wall of a tunnel killing 28 people, mostly children
- Title: SWITZERLAND: Injured are treated in hospitals after a coach carrying a Belgian school party home from a ski trip crashes into the wall of a tunnel killing 28 people, mostly children
- Date: 15th March 2012
- Summary: SIERRE, SWITZERLAND (MARCH 14, 2012) (REUTERS) MOUNTAINS OF THE VALAIS IN THE BACKGROUND AND THE CITY OF SIERRE IN THE FOREGROUND VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF THE HOSPITAL IN SIERRE SION, SWITZERLAND (MARCH 14, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIOR OF THE HOSPITAL IN SION VARIOUS EXTERIOR OF THE FUNERAL CENTRE IN SION
- Embargoed: 30th March 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Switzerland, Switzerland
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVA6GPU4UN858NIF7QOBYF6B89QI
- Story Text: Children injured when a bus carrying a Belgian school party home from a ski trip crashed into the wall of a tunnel in Switzerland late on Tuesday (March 13), have been transported to four local hospitals, including the Sion hospital, local media reported.
Twenty eight people, including 22 children, died in the crash.
Many other children were trapped in the wreck and had to be freed, said police.
About 200 police, firefighters, doctors and medics worked through the night, while 12 ambulances and eight helicopters took the injured to hospital.
The bus, transporting 52 people, mostly school children aged about 12 from the towns of Lommel and Heverlee in Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region, crashed in the Swiss canton of Valais, police told a news conference early on Wednesday.
A police photograph showed the bus rammed up against the side of the tunnel, the front ripped open, broken glass and debris strewn on the road and rescue workers climbing in through side windows.
The bus was returning to Belgium from a skiing holiday camp in Val d'Anniviers, a resort in the Valais Alps that border France.
Police said the bus had just joined the highway towards the Swiss town of Sierre after coming down into a valley.
After travelling 2 km (1.2 miles) on the road, the bus bumped into the curb and skidded into an emergency siding in the tunnel.
The front third of the bus was completely torn apart. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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