Four children have been killed in a crash between a train and a school bus in southern France.
The French interior ministry confirmed four teenage children had died. Local media reported that seven other people had been seriously hurt, with a further 12 lightly injured.
The Pyrenees-Orientales authority tweeted that the collision occurred on Thursday afternoon on a railway crossing at the small town of Millas, about nine miles west of Perpignan and close to the border with Spain.
The country’s prime minister Edouard Philippe and transport minister Elizabeth Borne said they would travel immediately to the crash site.
“Emergency and public services are fully mobilised,” Ms Borne said on Twitter, describing the crash as a “terrible accident”.
President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet: “All my thoughts for the victims of this terrible accident involving a school bus, as well as their families. The state is fully mobilised to help them.”
An image posted by France Bleu showed the white bus had been smashed in half in the crash.
The vehicle was carrying children aged between 13 and 17.
An SNCF spokeswoman said the train was running at about 50mph at the time of the accident, about 4pm, and that 25 people were on board. Three of them were slightly injured.
“It was a classic crossing, well equipped and lit. Several witnesses confirmed that the barrier had come down so it worked,” the spokeswoman said, adding that an investigation would have to clarify what had happened.
Additional reporting by agencies
