BANGKOK, Thailand
A bus carrying dozens of primary school children has crashed and caught fire just outside the Thai capital Bangkok.
Sixteen children and three
teachers are reported to have escaped, but 22 pupils and three teachers are
still unaccounted for, according to the country's transport minister.
Officials say they have found
ten bodies on the bus.
Photographs show the bus
completely destroyed by the fire. Investigators are said to have been unable to
enter the vehicle because of the heat, according to local media.
The bus was one of three that
were carrying children and teachers returning from a school field trip in the
northern province of Uthai Thani.
Transport Minister Suriyahe
Juangroongruangkit said the bus was powered by compressed natural gas.
“This is a very tragic
incident,” Mr Suriyahe told reporters at the scene.
“The ministry must find a
measure… if possible, for passenger vehicles like this to be banned from using
this type of fuel because it’s extremely risky,” he added.
Thailand's prime minister,
meanwhile, has ordered ministers to visit the scene.
"As a mother, I would
like to express my deepest regrets to the families of those killed,"
Paetongtarn Shinawatra said.
"The government will be
responsible for all the medical costs and the compensation for those
killed," she added.
The bus was travelling on a
highway into Bangkok when a tyre burst, sending it crashing into a barrier, a
rescue worker said in footage broadcast on local television.
Video footage from the scene
showed flames engulfing the bus as it burned under an overpass, huge clouds of
dense black smoke billowing into the sky.
It is not clear what age the
children on board were, but the school has pupils between three and 15 years
old.
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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