At least 23 confirmed dead in school bus fire in Thailand
A bus carrying young students with their teachers caught fire in suburban Bangkok on Tuesday, with at least 23 people feared dead, officials and rescuers said. The bus was carrying 44 passengers from central Uthai Thani province for a school trip in Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces when the fire started around noon in Pathum Thani province, a northern suburb of the capital.
Videos posted on social media showed the entire bus engulfed in flames with huge plumes of black smoke pouring out as it stood under an overpass. Bodies were still inside hours after the fire. The students on the bus were reported to be in elementary and junior high school.
Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said officials couldn’t yet confirm the number of fatalities because they hadn’t finished investigating the scene. He said the driver survived but appeared to have fled and couldn’t be found. Anutin had earlier said 25 were feared dead, but Piyalak Thinkaew, a rescuer of the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, told reporters later that two more survivors had been found, reducing the number of those still unaccounted for to 23 – three teachers and 20 students.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra offered her condolences in a post on social media platform X, saying the government would take care of medical expenses and compensate the victims’ families. “As a mother, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families,” she said in a social media post on X, according to the Reuters news agency.
