More than 20 students have died this Tuesday when a fire caught school bus that was taking a group of minors on an excursion to the outskirts of Bangkok as reported by local emergency teams.
The crashed vehicle, which appears engulfed in flames in the images released by emergency teams, It transported more than thirty students and six teachers from the Wat Khao Phraya school (in the province of Uthai Thani, about 4 hours from the capital) who were participating in an excursion north of the capital of Thailand.
Sixteen children and three teachers would have escaped, but 22 students and three teachers were reportedly trapped inside according to the country’s Minister of Transportation. The authorities say having already found ten bodies on the bus, according to the BBC Thai service.
According to official documents, the school welcomes students from kindergarten to around 15 years old, without the ages and identities having yet been transcended of the victims.
The bus caught fire with the passengers inside shortly after noon this Tuesday on the Vibhavadi Rangsit highway, which runs through Bangkok, this media adds. The causes of the event which are being investigated.
The Prime Minister of Thailand, Paetongtarn Shinawatra has conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims in a message posted on Facebook and has said that the Government will assume the medical expenses of the survivors. “As a mother, I extend my most sincere condolences to the families,” said the leader, 38 years old and mother of two young children.