BELGIUM: First bodies of Swiss bus crash soon repatriated, national mourning day on Friday, says Belgium PM
Record ID:
382827
BELGIUM: First bodies of Swiss bus crash soon repatriated, national mourning day on Friday, says Belgium PM
- Title: BELGIUM: First bodies of Swiss bus crash soon repatriated, national mourning day on Friday, says Belgium PM
- Date: 16th March 2012
- Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MARCH 15, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF GOVERNMENT BUILDING BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER ELIO DI RUPO TAKING SEAT MEDIA AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER ELIO DI RUPO SAYING: "The bodies have been taken from Lausanne to Sion, the identification is being done family by family, and you imagine there are moments of intense pain and at times these can be long. From contacts I had one hour ago with the Swiss authorities I can say that the identification is in process, but that it takes time." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (French) BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER ELIO DI RUPO SAYING: "The government has decided that tomorrow March the 16th will be a day of national mourning. And that at 11 o'clock one minute of silence will be observed all over the country to mourn the victims." JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE DI RUPO AND OTHER POLITICIANS SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) BELGIUM DEFENCE MINISTER PIETER DE CREM SAYING: "This afternoon one of the three military C130 planes made available will depart for Sion, with on board material to enable the repatriation of the deceased victims. This repatriation will most likely take place late in the evening, but before midnight." DI RUPO AND DE CREM LEAVING
- Embargoed: 31st March 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Belgium, Belgium
- Country: Belgium
- Topics: Disasters
- Reuters ID: LVABGYPGPLENGYVOK2Q78NAMCW6X
- Story Text: Belgium announced a national day of mourning for Friday, following Tuesday's bus accident in Switzerland which killed 22 children from a Belgian school and six adults, as the first of the victims were expected to return on Thursday (March 15).
"The identification process is being carried out one family at a time, and this is as you can imagine a moment of intense pain which can take very long," Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo said.
Swiss authorities said identifying the victims was so difficult in some cases that additional DNA testing was required.
Six of the children who survived and only sustained minor injuries would return to Belgium on Thursday, the Belgian government said.
The Belgian government said it would not work on the national day of mourning on Friday, and rescheduled a meeting planned for that day.
"The government has decided that tomorrow March the 16th will be a day of national mourning. And that at 11 o'clock one minute of silence will be observed all over the country to mourn the victims," di Rupo said.
All flags would remain at half mast until Saturday, the government said.
A Hercules C130 plane of the Belgian army was prepared to fly to Sion to take back the first of the identified bodies to Belgium, Defence Minister Pieter De Crem said.
It was unclear when the body of the driver of the bus would be returned to Belgium, as Swiss authorities were still carrying out an autopsy to see whether it would yield clues about the cause of the accident.
"This afternoon one of the three military C130 planes made available will depart for Sion, with on board material to enable the repatriation of the deceased victims. This repatriation will most likely take place late in the evening, but before midnight," De Crem said.
Belgian national media later contradicted this statement, saying in Sion no planes are allowed to take off after sunset.
It was also not known when four heavily wounded children would be repatriated, with three of them deemed to be in too critical a condition to be transported.
Swiss authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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