Distraught families of victims of a horrific school bus crash in a Swiss Alpine tunnel that killed 28 people flew to the scene Wednesday, still unaware if their children were alive or dead. The coach bringing 46 children and four teachers back to Belgium from a skiing holiday hit a concrete wall late Tuesday in the motorway tunnel near the town of Sierre.
A total of 22 children from two Catholic primary schools were killed, along with the teachers and both coach drivers, and 24 reported injured. The injured, three of whom were said to be in a coma, were taken by ambulance and helicopter to four hospitals as fire crews worked for hours to cut them free from the twisted wreckage of the coach. Belgium announced a day of national mourning, while the Swiss parliament observed a minute's silence for the victims. Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf were due to visit the site of the crash later Wednesday. "This is a tragic day for all of Belgium," said Di Rupo. As well as Belgians, the children included 10 of Dutch nationality and one Pole, authorities said.
Police in the southern Valais canton told reporters early Wednesday that the tragedy was "unprecedented" and that even seasoned rescuers had been traumatised. Surgeon Jean-Pierre Dellars said in one of the hospitals: "All the rescuers were shocked by what they have experienced." The injuries were so bad that the death toll could well rise, he added. The coach, in a convoy of three hired by Catholic education authorities in Belgium's Flanders region, carried pupils from primary schools in Lommel, near the Dutch border, and Heverlee, in the suburbs of Leuven in the centre.
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