‘Badly charred’: Kids killed in school bus fire

The world is mourning with Thailand as 20 children, some as young as five, and three teachers are confirmed dead in a school bus fire. Warning: Graphic

Thailand’s heartbroken Prime Minister has vowed to pay for medical expense and compensate the families of the 23 dead and many more injured in a horror school bus blaze.

Of the 44 people on board the bus, 20 out of the 38 children have been confirmed dead along with three of the six teachers.

A relative of a student who died in a bus fire covers the eyes of a child travelling on a separate bus on the same school trip so they don’t have to see the wreckage. Picture: AFP.

The bus was carrying students and teachers on the outskirts of Bangkok. Picture: AFP.

“As a mother I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families,” Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra wrote on X along with her promise to financially support those impacted.

The bus was carrying children aged five to 14 from Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam school in the northern province of Uthai Thani.

It is feared the death toll may rise due to the extent of the injuries and a number of people still remaining unaccounted for.

Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra speaking with a teacher at a school whose pupils were victims of the deadly bus fire. Picture: Royal Thai Government.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra arrives at Patrangsit Hospital in Pathum Thani, north of Bangkok to check on the victims. Picture: Royal Thai Government.

Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said earlier that 25 people were unaccounted for after the blaze.

“Initial reports said there are 44 on board, 38 students and six teachers. As far as we know now, three teachers and 16 students got out,” he told reporters.

“For those still missing, we are not clear yet.”

Rescue workers and firefighters surround a burnt-out bus that was carrying students and teachers on the outskirts of Bangkok. Picture: AFP

Rescue workers inspect the burnt bus. Picture: AFP

The disaster began when a tyre burst on a highway in a northern Bangkok suburb around 12:30pm (0530 GMT), sending the bus crashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, rescuers said.

Video footage from the scene showed flames engulfing the bus as it burned under an overpass, huge clouds of dense black smoke billowing into the sky.

Rescue workers put up screens to shield firefighters and investigators as they began recovering bodies from the charred wreckage.

“Some of the bodies we rescued were very, very small. They must have been very young in age,” Piyalak Thinkaew, who is leading the search, told reporters at the scene, adding that the fire started at the front of the bus.

“The kids’ instinct was to escape to the back so the bodies were there,” he said.

A rescue worker carries the wrapped-up body of a victim. Picture: AFP

Firefighters and a forensic police officer inspect what’s left of the bus. Picture: AFP

The bodies are so badly charred that it is hard to identify them, he said. Some of the children who escaped suffered horrific burns to their faces, mouths and eyes, doctors treating them told local media.

“I have learned of the fire on a bus carrying students from Uthai Thani … resulting in deaths and injuries,” Paetongtarn wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“As a mother, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the injured and deceased.”

Meechai Sa-ard, a motorbike taxi driver, heard the noise of the incident from a kilometre (0.6 miles) away.

“There was smoke everywhere. Poor children, I heard they were very little,” he told AFP.

“I was hoping that god would be kind so that the rain could put the fire out and the kids would survive.”

The blaze has been put out but rescuers had to wait for the bus to cool down before searching it for bodies, a rescue worker said.

Thailand has one of the worst road safety records in the world, with unsafe vehicles and poor driving contributing to the high annual death toll.

Around 20,000 people are killed every year on the kingdom’s roads, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) – more than 50 a day on average.

The economic losses caused by traffic deaths and injuries amounted to around $15.5 billion in 2022 – more than three per cent of GDP – the WHO says.