At least 13 children were killed and five critically injured Thursday after a train crashed into a small school bus in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state, an official said.
The students, all aged below 10, were being driven to class after the van had picked them up from several villages, when a passenger train collided with their vehicle at a railway crossing.
The impact of the crash lifted the bus several meters into the air, killing 10 children instantly, district chief medical officer Akhilesh Kumar Singh told Agence France Presse.
"Three succumbed to the injuries at the hospital and five remain critical," he added.
A railroad guard posted at the ungated crossing signaled for the van to stop but the driver, who was also killed in the crash, ignored the signal and crashed into the train.
Local television showed footage of dozens of locals attempting to rescue the children from the vehicle's mangled wreckage.
Shocked parents and relatives of the children also rushed to the accident site and the hospital in Kushinagar, a town 200 kilometers southeast of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, after hearing the news of the crash.
India has some of the world's deadliest roads, claiming the lives of more than 150,000 people each year.
Earlier this month, 23 children and four adults were killed when a driver lost control of a school bus, which plunged into a 100-meter deep gorge north of Delhi.
