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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA train and a school bus have collided near Perpignan in southern France, leaving at least four children dead and many other people injured.<\/p>\n
Twenty people were injured and 11 of them were in a critical condition, after the crash on a level crossing between Millas and Saint-F\u00e9liu-d\u2019Amont.<\/p>\n
The bus had picked up pupils, aged between 13 and 17, from a nearby secondary school before it was hit.<\/p>\n
Pictures from the scene showed the bus split in two by the force of the crash.<\/p>\n
Train operator SNCF said witnesses had reported seeing the barriers at the level crossing down at the time of the collision, although that was not confirmed.<\/p>\n
The bus, which had left the Christian Bourquin College in Millas, was on the crossing when it was hit by the train, which was travelling from Perpignan at around 80km\/h (50mph). Visibility was described as good.<\/p>\n
A witness who was on the train told local news website l\u2019Ind\u00e9pendant that \u201cit was a very violent crash \u2013 it seemed as if the train would derail\u201d.\u00a0Some 30 people were on the regional train at the time.<\/p>\n
Investigators are waiting to interview the woman driver of the bus who was slightly injured in the crash. Both drivers escaped serious injury.<\/p>\n
Carole Delga, president of the Occitanie regional council, said the level crossing appeared to be in very good condition and had been upgraded recently. \u201cThe level crossing was very visible\u201d, she said. SNCF said it involved an automatic barrier with standard signals and was not considered particularly dangerous.<\/p>\n
But the grandmother of an injured 11-year-old girl who had been on the bus told a very different story. The girl had told her that the barrier had not come down but had remained raised. \u201cThe red lights that normally flash did not come on,\u201d she said. \u201cThe (bus) driver went through and stopped half way, and that\u2019s where the train crashed into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rail operator SNCF has modernised level crossings across France in recent years, following numerous accidents, the BBC\u2019s Chris Bockman reports from Toulouse.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who visited the scene, said the task of identifying the victims was proving extremely difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe priority at this stage is to give precise information to the families who are living through a period of anguish that we must make as short as possible\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source:BBC<\/p>\n
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