At least two killed, 16 injured in school bus accident in eastern France

An intercity bus that was carrying children and teenagers to school crashed on Friday morning in eastern France, killing one minor and one young adult, French authorities said. 

The bus, which was travelling between Lyon and Bourg-en-Bresse, was carrying 43 passengers, including 15 minors, said prosecutors.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray said the crash involved a bus ​believed ‌to be transporting school ⁠pupils, with the mayor of Lent, the small town where the ‌crash took place, confirming that it was a ⁠school bus. The local prefecture said the collision involved an intercity bus.

The Lent mayor, ​Yves Cristin, said 70 people ‌were affected by the crash and that it had opened its community hall to provide care and ‌shelter to the crash victims.

Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said on X that he was heading to the site following “a serious bus accident” near the small town of Lent, in a rural area north-east of Lyon. 

“An accident involving an intercity bus occurred near Lent, France, with multiple casualties reported,” the prefecture said in a statement. Emergency services and law enforcement officers have been deployed to the scene, it said.

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News broadcaster BFM TV reported that the passengers included children travelling to middle and high schools in the area. A photo from the scene showed the bus had veered off the road and landed in a ditch.

“It is always a difficult moment when our students, our children, are victims of an accident like this. My thoughts, and those of the government and the entire education community, are with the families,” Geffray told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to a high school in the Paris region.