At least two killed, 16 injured in school bus accident in eastern France

​At least two people were killed and 16 injured in a bus crash on Friday morning in eastern France near the Swiss ​border, ‌local authorities said.

French Prime Minister Sébastien ⁠Lecornu wrote in a post on X that two children had died in ‌the accident.

The local prefecture said in a statement ⁠that three of the injured were in critical condition.

Yves Cristin, the mayor of the small town of ​Lent where the crash took place, said a ‌school bus had been involved, although the local prefecture said the accident involved an intercity bus.

Cristin said 70 people were affected ‌by the crash, though the local prefecture said the number affected was ​about 40.The town has opened its community hall to provide care and shelter to the crash victims.

“An accident involving an intercity bus occurred near Lent, France, with multiple casualties reported,” the prefecture said in a statement. Emergency services and law enforcement officers have been deployed to the scene, it said.

A photo from the scene showed the bus had veered off the road and landed in a ditch.

“It is always a difficult moment when our students, our children, are victims of an accident like this. My thoughts, and those of the government and the entire education community, are with the families,” Education Minister Édouard Geffray told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to a high school in the Paris region.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP and AP)