{"id":17446,"date":"2026-05-26T12:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/17446\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:22:16","slug":"four-dead-after-train-hits-school-bus-in-belgium-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/17446\/","title":{"rendered":"Four dead after train hits school bus in Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four people, including two children, were killed when a train hit a school minibus carrying in northern Belgium on Tuesday, the country\u2019s deputy prime minister said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA tragic collision between a train and a school bus took place in Buggenhout this morning. Four people have been killed, including two children,\u201d Maxime Prevot wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Bart De Wever posted that he was \u201cdeeply moved by the horrific accident\u2026 My thoughts go out to the affected families\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO READ | <a href=\"https:\/\/witness.co.za\/news\/2026\/05\/24\/pakistan-train-blast-kills-at-least-24-in-balochistan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pakistan train blast kills at least 24 in Balochistan<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Images from the scene in the Flanders region showed a badly damaged minibus lying on its side on a road next to a railway line, with tents set up by emergency workers around.\u00a0The commuter train remained halted on the tracks.<\/p>\n<p>Police spokeswoman An Berger told Belgian media that seven children, a supervisor and a driver were aboard the minibus, adding that no one on the train was hurt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe impact was extremely violent,\u201d Frederic Sacre, a spokesman for Belgium\u2019s Infrabel\u00a0rail agency, told AFP, adding that the train was travelling at 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe minibus was thrown about 15 metres (50 feet) into a metal pylon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u2018Barrier closed\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n<p>Sacre said footage from the scene showed that the barriers at the crossing had been closed and a red light was showing at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Belgian media reported that the pupils came from a school for children with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Belgian interior minister\u00a0Bernard Quintin expressed his deep sadness at the \u201ctragic accident\u201d, writing on X that \u201cmy thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish the injured much strength,\u201d he wrote, thanking the emergency services for their work.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO READ | <a href=\"https:\/\/witness.co.za\/news\/2026\/05\/06\/human-to-human-hantavirus-strain-confirmed-in-cruise-passenger\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Human-to-human hantavirus strain confirmed in cruise passenger<\/a><\/p>\n<p>European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen joined in the stream of commiserations from politicians, saying she was \u201cheartbroken\u201d by the collision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy deepest condolences go out to the victims\u2019 families and their loved ones,\u201d she posted online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, Europe grieves with Belgium.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four people, including two children, were killed when a train hit a school minibus carrying in northern Belgium&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[2776,7,10328,11379,1608,11378,144,11301],"class_list":["post-17446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-afp","tag-belgium","tag-bus","tag-dead","tag-international","tag-kzn","tag-news","tag-school-bus"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116640857826693152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}