BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two children, aged 12 and 15, and two adults have been killed in a collision between a train and a school minibus in Buggenhout, northern Belgium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bus had been carrying seven children, a driver, 49, and a chaperone, 27, at the time of the collision, which took place shortly after 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The bus was on its way to a special education school. It concerns mainly secondary school children,” said federal police spokeswoman An Berger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Belgian mobility minister Jean-Luc Crucke confirmed reports that the barriers on a level crossing had been down when the crash happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My first thoughts are with the victims,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other five children on the bus are in a critical but stable condition in hospital, the public prosecutor’s spokeswoman told reporters, adding that an investigation has been launched into the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody on the train was hurt, although one person was being treated for shock, according to Berger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the minibus driver had been driving on a street parallel to the railway and then turned left on to the level crossing while the barrier was already down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Images from the scene showed the minibus lying on its side in Buggenhout, a small town near Aalst, to the north-west of the Belgian capital Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was lying on the driveway of a house alongside the railway line and witnesses said the vehicle had been thrown some distance by the force of the collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What heartbreaking news,” Flemish education minister Zuhal Demir posted on social media. “My thoughts are with all the victims, their families and everyone closely involved.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Today, Europe grieves with Belgium,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The train was slowing down at the time of the collision on its approach to Buggenhout station, Thomas Baeken, a spokesman for Belgian rail network Infrabel, told public broadcaster VRT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that first indications from CCTV footage confirmed that the lights on the level crossing were red and the barrier was down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: Two children, aged 12 and 15, and two adults have been killed in a collision between a train and a school minibus in Buggenhout, northern Belgium. The bus had been carrying seven children, a driver, 49, and a chaperone, 27, at the time of the collision, which took place shortly after 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT). “The bus was on its way to a special education school. It concerns mainly secondary school children,” said federal police spokeswoman An Berger. Belgian mobility minister Jean-Luc Crucke confirmed reports that the barriers on a level crossing had been down when the crash… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57972,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57970\/revisions\/57972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}