BRUSSELS: A bus carrying British schoolchildren went off a highway and overturned near the Belgian coast on Sunday, killing one adult chaperone and injuring the driver and some of the children, officials said.

Belgian highway authorities said the vehicle apparently went out of control, struck a bridge pillar on the E40 highway, then shot off the road.

The bus was carrying aro­u­nd 40 passengers, including 34 British children from 11 to 13 years old, authorities said.

The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said all of the children survived the crash, but an adult passenger had been killed.

The bus driver was also seriously injured. Three adults and some of the children were sent to a local hospital for treatment. Others were transported to a centre in the coastal city of Middelkerke.

British government officials said a team from the British Embassy was on the scene to provide assistance to UK citizens affected by the crash and to establish how it happened.

The E-40 highway, a major thoroughfare that links Belgium’s North Sea coast to the capital city of Brussels, was closed to traffic following the crash.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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