Bus crash ‘leaves 42 dead’ in France
A collision between a bus and car has left at least 42 people dead in south-west France, officials said.
Another five people were injured, the official said, after the two vehicles crashed and caught fire on a country road.
The victims of the crash, near Bordeaux, were members of elderly people’s club on a day trip, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet has told French BFM TV.
DIRECT VIDEO – #Puisseguin : première photo du car accidenté, envoyée par un Témoin BFMTV
https://t.co/LIEhlp6yN7 pic.twitter.com/eSoBSNZ35A
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) October 23, 2015
Local media say the crash happened at 7.30 am near Puisseguin, near Libourne about 35 miles east of Bordeaux.
It is the worst crash on French roads in decades. A spokesman for the interior ministry said that, as far as he could tell, all the passengers were French and from the
region.
#Puisseguin : Mamère s’en prend à la loi Macron sur les autocars https://t.co/0TYaK6D9jm via @RMCinfo pic.twitter.com/O6QfDrjfXW
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) October 23, 2015
Speaking from Athens where he is on a visit, President Francois Hollande said emergency services were mobilising and that he had been “plunged into sadness by the tragedy.”
The bus was carrying about 50 day-trippers south to the Landes region from their home in the village of Petit Palais just a few kilometres away from the crash site.
