{"id":17454,"date":"2026-05-26T12:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/17454\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T12:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:34:28","slug":"four-dead-in-crash-between-train-and-school-bus-in-belgium-officials-say-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/17454\/","title":{"rendered":"Four dead in crash between train and school bus in Belgium, officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Four people, including two children, have been killed in a crash between a train and a bus in northern Belgium, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Five children were taken to hospital in a serious condition, they said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The accident happened at a level crossing during the morning rush hour near the town of Buggenhout, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north-west of Brussels, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Details about how the incident unfolded were not immediately clear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Belgian private broadcaster VTM said that four people were killed, but police would not confirm whether there were any deaths \u201cout of respect for the families of those implicated\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">VTM said the barriers at the level crossing were closed but that the bus appeared to try to cross anyway and was hit by the train.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Belgium Crash\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6bf30441f223c1414da09c897541c525.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Rescue workers on the scene of a crash between a train and vehicle in Buggenhout, Belgium (Koen Baten\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>(Koen Baten)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Seven schoolchildren were aboard the minibus, with a driver and an escort.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the badly damaged bus lay toppled on its side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Forensic experts in protective white suits and wearing gloves were taking photos of the scene with a white pop-up tent erected nearby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The train was relatively unscathed.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Belgium Crash\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4e5a172a58c2f50c46f73c1247728171.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Rescue workers on the scene of a crash between a train and vehicle in Buggenhout, Belgium, (Koen Baten\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>(Koen Baten)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In a social media post, Belgian interior minister Bernard Quintin expressed \u201cgreat sadness\u201d over \u201cthe tragic accident in Buggenhout, where a school bus was struck by a train\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cMy thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four people, including two children, have been killed in a crash between a train and a bus in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,11303,11306,11392,11301],"class_list":["post-17454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-buggenhout","tag-level-crossing","tag-northern-belgium","tag-school-bus"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116640905054491776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17454","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=17454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}