Four dead as train and school bus collide in France

A SCHOOL bus and a regional train have collided in southern France, killing four children and critically injuring seven other people on the bus.

Photos from the scene tweeted by a local television station showed the train derailed and the bus cut in half.

Nine other people on the school bus and three on the train had less severe injuries.

It occurred on a railway crossing in the small village of Millas, some nine miles west of Perpignan, close to the border with Spain.

Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne and Education Minister JeanMichel Blanquer were at the scene along with 70 firefighters, 10 emergency ambulances and four helicopters.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was en route.

French president Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “All my thoughts go to the victims of this terrible accident and their families. The government is fully mobilised to give them emergency help.”

France’s SNCF national rail authority said witnesses described the crossing gates as functioning properly at the time of the collision.

A SNCF official said the train normally travels at 80km per hour at the location of the crash near Perpignan.

The official said “several witnesses said the barrier was down” at the time of the crash. She said 25 people were on the train at the time and are “totally shocked”.

She said that the crossing is “wellequipped” with flashing lights and the latest technology. She said it would be up to an investigation to determine whether everything functioned properly at the time of the accident on Thursday evening.