Driver killed as bus of British children crashes in Belgium

Brussels

A coach driver died and another was seriously injured on Sunday when
their vehicle overturned on a Belgian highway with 34 British
schoolchildren on board, an official said.

One of the children, all aged between 11 and 13, was in intensive care
receiving treatment for a head injury, the school said.

A spokesman for Brentwood School in Essex, southeast England, said the
coach, which was also carrying six teachers, was travelling to Cologne
in Germany when it collided with a bridge near Ostend.

The Belga news agency reported that the driver lost control on the E40
highway near the Flanders coast, sending the coach crashing into an
overpass.

"All pupils walked off the coach and several pupils and teachers have
been taken to local hospitals. One pupil is in intensive care
receiving treatment for a head injury," the school spokesman said.

He added: "We have been informed that the driver was killed in the
collision and his assistant has been severely injured. Our thoughts
are clearly with his family and all the families of the pupils and
teachers involved. "