School in shock after deadly coach crash kills 22 pupils

2012-03-14 232

Children and parents arrive in tears at this small school in the Belgian town of Heverlee.

Two teachers from the school died overnight in a coach crash in Switzerland that killed at least 28 people - 22 of them, children.

Most of the children were around 12 years old.

The coach was carrying the Belgian children home from a school ski trip when it crashed into the wall of a tunnel in the Valais region of Switzerland.

(SOUNDBITE) (French) PRIEST AND MEMBER OF BOARD OF ST LAMBERTUS SCHOOL DIRK DE GENT, SAYING:

"24 children from here went over there, about eight children we have no information, the others are alive, but with various injuries, like broken legs. But about eight children we don't know anything. We know that the two teachers have died."

Police said the coach had just merged onto a highway when it bumped into the curb and crashed head-on into an emergency siding in the tunnel.

The crash was one of the worst in Switzerland since 1982, when 39 German tourists were killed on a railway crossing when a train smashed into their coach.

Travis Brecher, Reuters

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