A young girl and an 18-year-old man have died after a bus crashed in eastern France, local authorities have said.
The bus was travelling between Lyon and Bourg-en-Bresse when it crashed at around 07:00 local time on Friday in the town of Lent.
The bus was carrying 43 passengers, including 15 children, the Bourg-en-Bresse prosecutor’s office said. Three people are in a critical condition and at least 13 others have sustained minor injuries.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his thoughts were with the victims, the injured, and their families.
In a post on X, he said the nation stood by their side and thanked the rescue teams involved.
The town’s mayor Yves Cristin told French media the bus “left the road and hit a tree in the ditch”.
The two people killed have been identified by authorities. However, there have been differing reports as to the age of the girl.
The prosecutor’s office said it was “opening an investigation into the incident, on charges of road homicide and aggravated road traffic injuries”.
The driver has been taken to hospital after sustaining injuries and has not yet been questioned by police. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said initial tests indicated there were no traces of alcohol or drugs in his blood.
Photos circulating in French media show a blue and white bus tilted in what appears to be a ditch on the roadside. Trees line the side of the road. The front of the bus appears to be heavily damaged.
Local mayor Cristin told BFM TV: “I arrived minutes after the accident and people were in shock.
“The side of the bus was torn off, and clearly, the people who were on that side must have been seriously injured.”
Addressing weather conditions at the time of the crash, the mayor told Le Figaro “there was a bit of fog, the road was wet” but there were “no major difficulties”.
Speaking to the same paper, Fabrice Pannekoucke, head of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, said: “At this stage, there are no particular explanations or interpretations that can be given.”
Tabarot said the bus did not operate “exclusively on school routes” but that there were “many schoolchildren on board”.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the accident was tragic, and thanked the firefighters, medical teams and police who attended the scene.
Earlier, French Education Minister Édouard Geffray said it was “always difficult when our children are victims of accidents of this nature”.
Emergency services were at the scene and medical helicopters were deployed to take victims with serious injuries to a specialised hospital.
More than 100 firefighters and 50 gendarmes were also at the scene.
The local town hall was opened to provide shelter and coordinate with emergency services, the local mayor said.
