Two dead and 16 injured after school bus crashes in eastern France

A bus carrying school children crashed south of Bourg-en-Bresse in eastern France on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring 16 others, French authorities said. The intercity bus went off the road in the morning near the small town of Lent, in a rural area northeast of Lyon.

Prosecutors said the bus, which was travelling between Lyon and Bourg-en-Bresse, had 43 passengers on board in total, including 15 minors. The two people killed were one minor and one young adult, according to the authorities.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray said the crash involved a bus believed to be transporting school pupils. Yves Cristin, the mayor of Lent, the small town where the crash took place, confirmed that it was a school bus, while the local prefecture said the collision involved an intercity bus.

News broadcaster BFM TV reported that the passengers included children travelling to middle and high schools in the area. A photo from the scene showed that the bus had veered off the road and landed in a ditch.

Cristin said 70 people were affected by the crash. He said the town had opened its community hall to provide care and shelter to the victims.

Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said on X that he was heading to the site following what he described as "a serious bus accident" near Lent.

"An accident involving an intercity bus occurred near Lent, France, with multiple casualties reported," the prefecture said in a statement. It said emergency services and law enforcement officers had been deployed to the scene.

Geffray spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a visit to a high school in the Paris region and offered his condolences to those affected. "It is always a difficult moment when our students, our children, are victims of an accident like this," he said. "My thoughts, and those of the government and the entire education community, are with the families."