BELGIUM: Residents in the town of Lommel hold a memorial service at the local church to mourn the victims of the Swiss bus crash

Record ID: 382796

  • Title: BELGIUM: Residents in the town of Lommel hold a memorial service at the local church to mourn the victims of the Swiss bus crash
  • Date: 16th March 2012
  • Summary: LOMMEL, BELGIUM (MARCH 15, 2012) (REUTERS) CHURCH MEMORIAL SERVICE IN PROGRESS CANDLES / WOMEN LIGHTING CANDLES MEMORIAL SERVICE IN PROGRESS / PRIESTS SINGING MOURNERS FLOWERS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LIGHTING CANDLES AND LAYING THEM ON TABLE
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium, Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Accidents
  • Reuters ID: LVACR69AUEEL2D3Z32SB8P6815B4
  • Story Text: A memorial service was held on Thursday (March 15) in the small Belgian town of Lommel for the victims who died in a bus crash in Switzerland earlier this week.
    A big screen showing the service was set up outside the church for those who couldn't get in. Earlier in the evening mourners lit candles and laid flowers to mourn the dead.
    Belgium said it'd hold a national day of mourning on Friday (March 16) for 22 school children and six adults killed in a bus crash in Switzerland, as the first of the survivors made their way home.
    Of the 52 passengers on the bus, which was carrying school groups from the Belgian towns of Heverlee and Lommel home from a ski trip when it crashed on Tuesday night, only 24 survived.
    Some were still in critical condition on Thursday. The bodies of the passengers killed in the crash, most of whom were about 12 years old, were all taken to the Swiss town of Sion, near the site of the accident, to be identified.
    Swiss authorities said identifying the victims was so difficult in some cases that additional DNA testing was required.
    Swiss authorities were also still carrying out an autopsy on the bus driver to see if that could yield clues on the cause of the accident.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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