Six children killed as rubble lorry gate slices through their school bus

Six children have been killed after the gate of a truck carrying rubble swung open and raked through their school bus. Three other children suffered minor injuries as the gate sliced through the bus at window height in the historic town of Rochefort in south-western France. “This is so unlikley, so unimaginable, given that the weather conditions were not a problem,” said Hervé Blanché, mayor of Rochefort. “This is extremely painful.”

The word chaos is not strong enough. This is such a tragedy

Jerome Servolle, police union official

Officials say there were 18 people on the bus at the time. President Francois Hollande has offered his condolences to the victims and their families. He also promised everything possible would be done “to shed light on the causes of this tragedy”. The accident comes just a day after two children, aged 12 and 15 were killed in another accident involving a school bus, which veered off a road in snowy conditions near the Swiss border.

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