Two killed after bus crash near French ski resort
2 December 2024, 09:34
Around 33 others were hurt in the crash in the Pyrenees, seven of them critically.
At least two people have died and 33 others were injured after a bus crashed near a ski resort in the Pyrenees mountains in southern France.
A total of 47 people including the driver were on the bus when it crashed on Sunday night near the ski resort of Porte-Puymorens, the regional administration said. Seven people are in a critical condition.
Local authorities said a preliminary investigation showed the bus ran into a cliff, but the exact circumstances are not immediately clear.
Images released by local firefighters showed the bus pressed against the side of a cliff, its right side partially crushed and its windshield apparently knocked out.
More than 120 individuals were involved in the rescue effort, including from neighbouring Catalonia in Spain and Andorra. Helicopters were also deployed.
France’s Transport Minister Francois Durovray expressed his condolences in a post on X to the victims and their families.
The injured were evacuated to French hospitals in Toulouse, Perpignan and Foix and Puigcerda in Catalonia, local authorities said.
Catalonia’s emergency services said on X that the bus originated from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, outside Barcelona, Spain.
