Twenty-eight people were killed when a coach packed with schoolchildren crashed in southern Switzerland as they returned to Belgium from a skiing holiday, Swiss police said Wednesday.
Twenty-two children were killed in the accident, which happened when the bus inexplicably swerved and hit a concrete wall while travelling through a tunnel. Another 24 children were reported injured in the crash, many seriously.
The impact of the crash was so violent that the front of the bus was ripped off.
Most of those on the bus, from two schools in Belgium, were aged around 12 and were returning from a holiday at the Val d’Anniviers ski resort.
Belgium was plunged into mourning following the news of the crash, and the Swiss parliament observed a minute’s silence for the victims.
“This is a tragic day for all of Belgium,” said Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo. Di Rupo and Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf were to visit the crash site later Wednesday.
Police and fire services sealed off the scene of the accident, closing the tunnel at both ends, as a fleet of helicopters and ambulances ferried the injured to four hospitals during the night. Fire crews worked for hours to cut free some of the victims from the tangled mass of wreckage.
The police commander in the southern Valais canton told reporters early Wednesday that the tragedy was “unprecedented” and that even seasoned rescuers had been traumatised.
Surgeon Jean-Pierre Deslarzes said in one of the hospitals: “All the rescuers were shocked by what they have experienced.” The coach, which was carrying 52 passengers, was travelling towards the Swiss town of Sion on the A9 motorway when the accident happened at 9:15 pm Tuesday (2015 GMT).
In Brussels, the Belgian foreign ministry said the coach was one of three hired by a Christian group. The students came from two different schools: in Lommel in northeast Belgium and Heverlee in the centre. “The magnitude of the accident is difficult to digest … for the moment I am concentrating on the practical aspects,” said Belgium’s ambassador in Switzerland Jan Luykx who visited the accident site early Wednesday.
“The emotional side will come when we meet with the families,” he added.
Belgian authorities said were doing everything they could to ensure that the families of the victims were kept informed and treated with dignity, the prime minister’s office said.
Foreign Minister Didier Reynders told RTBF radio two army aircraft would be used to fly the relatives to Switzerland. “There are two planes ready to take off,” at the military airport in Melsbroek, near Brussels, he said.
“The aim is to accompany the families who want to go to Switzerland,” said Reynders, who was speaking from Vietnam where he is on an official visit. A psychological support team was also on hand, he added. “Our first thought was the distress of the families,” he said. Peter Vanvelthoven, the mayor of Lommel in northeast Belgium, where some of the schoolchildren went to school, said they were also trying to help the families. “We have arranged a reception at the school, first for the parents, for the children and for the teachers, too,” he said. At Heverlee, near Louvain, home to some of the other crash victims, the atmosphere was fraught, RTBF reported — all the more so because it was not yet known who had died and who had survived. The families of the victims were gathered at the Sint-Lambertus School, while the students had been taken to another school.
