BELGIUM: Lommel Deputy Mayor says there is still uncertainty about the fate of 16 Belgian school children who survived a bus crash that killed 22 others
Record ID:
382785
BELGIUM: Lommel Deputy Mayor says there is still uncertainty about the fate of 16 Belgian school children who survived a bus crash that killed 22 others
- Title: BELGIUM: Lommel Deputy Mayor says there is still uncertainty about the fate of 16 Belgian school children who survived a bus crash that killed 22 others
- Date: 15th March 2012
- Summary: LOMMEL, BELGIUM (MARCH 14, 2012) (REUTERS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) VARIOUS OF LOMMEL AUTHORITIES AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) KRIS VERDUYNKT, DEPUTY MAYOR OF LOMMEL, SAYING: "I just spoke to the mayor. At this particular moment, he is travelling together with the parents in a coach to Sion. They must have arrived by now. It's the place where most of the hospitals are located, in which most of the children are in. It's also there where the identification of the deceased children will happen. The mayor has also called me to say that they don't have all the information yet because there are still children who have not been identified. So, you can imagine that the uncertainty causes a tremendous suffering for the parents. At this particular moment, we know of six children who have survived this drama. We don't know under which circumstances they survived this drama, but this means that we have no certainty of the fate of 16 children." POLICE AND SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVES AT TABLE CAMERAMAN FILMING (SOUNDBITE) (English) KRIS VERDUYNKT, DEPUTY MAYOR OF LOMMEL, SAYING: "We now know that two adults, adult persons lost their life in the accident. These are two people working at 'Basisschool 't Stekske' in Lommel-Kolonie, and from the 22 children aboard, we know that six children are still alive and from sixteen children, we now have no information. But as we compare our, the information from the other school, then we know that the most of the victims are at our school. So, but, the exact number is not known now because the parents are at this very moment arriving in the city where the most of the children are hospitalised and they also will be asked to help with the recognition from the children that are dead." CAMERAMAN AT NEWS CONFERENCE VERDUNKYT AND AUTHORITIES LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 30th March 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Belgium, Belgium
- Country: Belgium
- Topics: Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVA2SVLN4Z9JPSC41SDY6FONQMGF
- Story Text: Lommel Deputy Mayor Kris Verduynkt said on Wednesday (March 14) the fate of 16 children, who survived a fatal bus crash in Switzerland, was still uncertain.
Verdunkyt said that among the 22 children who were on board the bus, only six children have been confirmed to have survived.
He said the exact number of victims who attended the Lommel school was not known, due to the fact that their parents had not yet identified them.
Some of the parents who gathered at the Belgian primary schools attended by children on the crashed bus before boarding a military aircraft headed for Sion in Switzerland, did not know whether their children were dead or alive.
"I just spoke to the mayor. At this particular moment, he is travelling together with the parents in a coach to Sion. They must have arrived by now. It's the place where most of the hospitals are located, in which most of the children are in. It's also there where the identification of the deceased children will happen. The mayor has also called me to say that they don't have all the information yet because there are still children who have not been identified," Verduynkt said.
"At this particular moment, we know of six children who have survived this drama. We don't know under which circumstances they survived this drama, but this means that we have no certainty of the fate of 16 children," he added.
Ten Dutch children were on the bus, nine who live in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. There was also one German and a Polish person on the bus, according to the Belgian government.
A teacher from St Lambertus in Heverlee was also killed along with the bus's two drivers and three other adults.
"We now know that two adults, adult persons lost their life in the accident," Verduynkt said.
Twenty-eight people were killed, including 22 children. Of the 24 injured, three were in a coma. Most pupils were from the towns of Lommel and Heverlee in Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region.
A police photograph showed the bus rammed up against the side of a tunnel, the front ripped open, broken glass and debris strewn on the road and rescue workers climbing in through side windows. It was later towed away from the scene.
Police were alerted to the accident by images on surveillance cameras in the tunnel.
Swiss prosecutors are investigating whether the cause of the accident was a technical problem or human error. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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