Two dead after bus carrying schoolchildren crashes in France, officials say

A seven-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy have been killed after a bus crashed in eastern France, French authorities said.

The bus was carrying children to school, said Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot, who travelled to the scene in a rural area northeast of Lyon.

The prefecture in the Ain region said 16 people were also injured, including three seriously.

"An accident involving an intercity bus occurred near Lent, France, with multiple casualties reported," the prefecture said in a statement.

"This is a bus operated by the regional authority that was transporting about 15 students" and other passengers, Mr Tabarot said.

Emergency services and law enforcement officers have been deployed to the scene near the small town of Lent, the prefecture added.

It said 102 firefighters were at the scene, along with four aircraft and eight ground-based emergency medical teams.

The town has opened its community hall to provide care and shelter to the crash victims.

"I arrived minutes after the accident and people were in shock," Yves Cristin, the mayor of the small town ​of Lent where the crash took place, told BFM ⁠TV.

"The side of the bus was ​torn off, and clearly, the people who ​were on that side must have been seriously ​injured."

French media reported the passengers included children travelling to middle and high schools in the area. A photo from the scene showed the bus had veered off the road and landed in a ditch.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a post on X: "A tragic accident this morning in Lent, in the Ain department.

"Two children lost their lives and several people were injured in a bus crash.

"Thoughts to their families and loved ones, as well as to all those affected by this tragedy.

"Thank you to the firefighters, medical teams, and law enforcement mobilised on site to provide aid to the victims."

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On the sidelines of a visit to a high school in the Paris region, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said: "It is always a difficult moment when our students, our children, are victims of an accident like this.

"My thoughts, and those of the government and the entire education community, are with the families."

(c) Sky News 2026: Two dead after bus carrying schoolchildren crashes in France, officials say