BANGKOK — A bus carrying younger college students with their academics caught fireplace in suburban Bangkok on Tuesday, with greater than 20 of these on board feared lifeless, officers and rescuers stated.
The bus was carrying 44 passengers from central Uthai Thani province for a faculty journey in Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces, Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungruengkit instructed reporters on the scene.
Movies posted on social media confirmed the whole bus engulfed in fireplace with enormous plumes of black smoke pouring out because it stood on the aspect of the street. Our bodies had been nonetheless contained in the bus hours after the fireplace.
The scholars on the bus had been reported to be in elementary and junior highschool.
Inside Minister Anutin Charnvirakul stated officers couldn’t but verify the variety of fatalities as a result of that they had not completed investigating the scene. He stated the motive force survived however appeared to have fled and couldn’t but be discovered.
Anutin had earlier stated 25 had been feared lifeless, however Piyalak Thinkaew, a rescuer of the Ruamkatanyu Basis instructed reporters later that two extra survivors had been discovered, lowering the variety of these nonetheless lacking to 23 — three academics and 20 college students.
Rescuers and officers had been in a position to entry the bus hours after the fireplace was put out. Piyalak stated they had been nonetheless unable to determine the our bodies, most of which had been discovered within the center and again seats, main them to imagine that the fireplace began on the entrance of the bus.
Thai media studies and rescuers stated the bus was heading to Nonthaburi when the fireplace began round midday in Pathum Thani province, a northern suburb of the capital.
A rescuer on the scene instructed Suriya that the fireplace seemingly began after one of many tires exploded and the car scraped towards a street barrier.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra supplied her condolences in a put up on social media platform X, saying the federal government would care for medical bills and compensate the victims’ households.
The patRangsit Hospital, which is positioned close to the scene, stated in a information convention that it admitted three younger ladies, one in every of whom suffered burns to the face, mouth and eye.
