Last Updated Dec 15, 2017 4:54 AM EST
PARIS – All victims had been identified Friday after a regional train hit a school bus on a crossing in southern France late Thursday, the French interior ministry said. The death toll rose to six Friday morning after two 11-year-old girls succumbed to their injures, a police source told the AFP news agency.
Photos from the scene tweeted by a local television station showed the train derailed and the bus shorn in half – with first responders gathered around.
Philippe Vignes, the head of the local authority in the Pyrenees-Orientales, said on BFM television that eight people remained in serious condition Friday, including seven children and the bus driver.
Twelve others suffered less serious injuries.
In this photo provided by France Bleu, rescue workers help after a school bus and a regional train collided in the village of Millas, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017.
AP
The bus was carrying around 20 children aged between 11 and 15.
It was not immediately clear why the accident happened on the crossing in Millas, some 9 miles west of Perpignan, close to the border with Spain.
France’s SNCF national rail authority said witnesses described the crossing gates as functioning properly. Regional President Carole Delga told broadcaster France-Info that “it appears that there was no mechanical problem at this crossing.”
The school bus was transporting children home from the Christian Bourquin school in the small village of Millas. It was carrying around 20 children aged between 11 and 15, the local authority said.
Psychological help was being offered in a local sports hall from Friday morning.
An SNCF official told The Associated Press that the train was carrying 25 people including passengers and crew and all are accounted for and being offered psychological care. The official added that that train normally travels at 80 kilometers per hour at that location.
The official said “several witnesses said the barrier was down” at the time of the crash. She said the people on the train were “totally shocked.”
Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne and Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer were at the scene Thursday evening along with 70 firefighters, 10 emergency ambulances and four helicopters.
Blanquer tweeted: “France is in mourning.”
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also arrived at the scene Thursday evening.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “All my thoughts go to the victims of this terrible accident and their families. The government is fully mobilized to give them emergency help.”
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