More than 20 children are feared to have died in a school bus inferno after their coach exploded while returning from a field trip.
The bus was carrying kids from the Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam School in the Uthai Thani province of Thailand when it caught fire on a road in Pathum Thani, on the outskirts of Bangkok, at around 12.38pm local time.
Dramatic footage from the scene shows flames engulfing the entire vehicle as it burned under an overpass, huge clouds of dense black smoke billowing into the sky, with firefighters trying to put out the inferno.
Officials said the bus carried 44 students and teachers who were returning from a school trip, with up to 25 of the passengers on the bus feared dead.
They said the children were in Grade 3, making them around nine or ten years old.
Horrifying pictures from the scene showed their charred corpses in the burned-out vehicle.
Firemen took some of the children who were able to escape the blaze into a nearby building, where they were seen being counted.
Rescue workers said that at least 19 out of the 44 passengers, including teachers and pupils who have been rescued and rushed to hospital. At least 25 others remain missing.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said there were fatalities and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
Transport minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit said the number of fatalities was not clear but 25 people were unaccounted for after the blaze.
“Initial reports said there are 44 on board, 38 students and six teachers. As far as we know now, three teachers and 16 students got out,” he told reporters.
‘For those still missing, we are not clear yet.’
Many of the rescued passengers suffered burns, with shocking pictures showing a little girl with burn wounds. Local media report that one of the front tyres exploded, causing the bus to steer out of control and crash into a metal barrier on the side of the road.
The crash reportedly sparked the fire that soon engulfed the entire vehicle.
The bus was running on compressed gas and the crash ignited its fuel tanks, a rescue worker said in footage broadcast on local TV.
‘I have learned of the fire on a bus carrying students from Uthai Thani… resulting in deaths and injuries,” Paetongtarn wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“As a mother, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the injured and deceased.”
The blaze has been put out but rescue workers have had to wait for the bus to cool down before searching it for bodies, a rescue worker said.
Thailand has one of the worst road safety records in the world, with unsafe vehicles and poor driving contributing to the high annual death toll.
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