{"id":17765,"date":"2026-05-27T11:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/17765\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T11:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:38:15","slug":"four-dead-as-belgian-train-collides-with-a-minibus-of-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/17765\/","title":{"rendered":"Four dead as Belgian train collides with a minibus of children"},"content":{"rendered":"

A train traveling at high speed has hit a minibus crossing a railway in Belgium, killing four people, including two children, and badly injuring five other children.<\/p>\n

Officials called it one of the worst rail accidents in the country’s history.<\/p>\n

It appeared that the minibus drove through the closed crossing barrier, officials said. A security camera showed the bus, carrying nine people, was moving when the train hit it. The collision happened during morning rush hour near Buggenhout town, about 30km northwest of the capital, Brussels.<\/p>\n

The bus driver and an escort were killed along with two children aged 12 and 15, said Lisa De Wilde, spokesperson for the East Flanders public prosecutor\u2019s office. She said the injured children were hospitalised in serious condition.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police and rescue personnel crossing the train tracks where the incident took place. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

De Wilde told journalists the cause of the crash hadn’t been established.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we do know is that the barrier was closed and the red light was on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Federal Police spokesperson An Berger said the minibus driver appeared to have ploughed through the barrier. Infrabel said the crossing was working correctly.<\/p>\n

The train had been traveling at an estimated 120km\/h as it approached the crossing and had \u201cno time to brake,” said Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Sacr\u00e9, a spokesperson for Belgian rail operator Infrabel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact was extremely violent,\u201d Sacr\u00e9 told the RTBF public broadcaster.<\/p>\n

An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the bus was toppled on its side with its front section crushed. The train was relatively unscathed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The minibus was carrying nine people. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

It was believed about 100 passengers were aboard the train and that none were hurt. Rail traffic in the area was halted. Local officials stood for a minute’s silence after a news conference.<\/p>\n

In a post on social media, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said he was \u201cdeeply moved by the horrific accident in Buggenhout. My thoughts go out to the affected families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children played basketball and rode bicycles at a school not far from the scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A train traveling at high speed has hit a minibus crossing a railway in Belgium, killing four people,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[2354,18,11637],"class_list":["post-17765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-accident","tag-brussels","tag-uk-europe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116646347211320702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17765","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=17765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}