Belgium to Fly Crash Victims Home

Relatives of victims of a bus crash gathered Wednesday outside a primary school in Lommel-Kolonie, Belgium. Of the 28 people killed in the crash, 22 were children on a school ski trip. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The Belgian authorities are preparing to fly home the bodies of 22 children and six adults killed in a coach crash in Switzerland, BBC reported.

Two C-130 Hercules military planes are on standby. The Belgian cabinet is due to hold an urgent meeting shortly.

The coach, carrying 52 people back to Belgium following a skiing trip, struck a wall head-on in a tunnel on Tuesday.

Relatives of the victims were later flown to Switzerland, many still unsure about the fate of their children.

Another 24 children were injured, some critically, in the late night accident near the town of Sierre, in the southern Swiss canton of Valais.

It was the most serious traffic accident in Switzerland's history for decades.

The Belgian foreign ministry said most of the children were aged about 12, and the bus was one of three hired by a Christian group. The other two reached Belgium safely.

The children had spent a week skiing in Val d'Anniviers in the Swiss Alps.

Those on board the bus that crashed were from the Stekske primary school in Lommel, near the Dutch border, and from St Lambertus in Heverlee, near Leuven (Louvain).

Although most of the victims are Belgian, Swiss officials say the dead include seven Dutch children. Among those injured are three Dutch, one Pole and one German.

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