By Paul Robins
Daily Star
VALAIS, Switzerland — AT least 28 people, including 22 children, died when their coach crashed inside a tunnel in the Swiss Alps.
Another 24 injured youngsters had to be cut from the wreckage.
Rescuers told of a “scene like a war” as they searched for bodies of the victims, who had been returning from a school skiing trip.
The coach was taking the 12-year-olds back to Belgium when it struck a kerb and ploughed into a concrete wall on Tuesday evening.
The front of the bus was ripped open and debris strewn across the road.
Claude Peter, head of the Val d’Anniviers rescue service, told of the eerie silence at the scene.
He said: “You could not even hear children’s cries.
“In these situations the children are mute, they are in so much shock.
“Their legs were a mess. It is very stressful to see all these crushed limbs.” Alain Rittemer, who led the emergency services, said: “It exceeds anything imaginable, it was complete carnage.”
One boy, who suffered two broken legs, said: “It was very dark.
“I heard a great bang. All the seats were gone. I found myself wedged between two seats.”
Prosecutor Olivier Elsig, in charge of the investigation, said: “The coach was not going too fast.
“Three hypotheses are being examined - firstly, a technical problem; secondly, the driver’s health, and thirdly, human error.”
Although the coach had seatbelts, he said it was not yet clear whether the passengers were buckled up. The bus, which was carrying 52 people, was heading back from the Valais Alps.
The coach had just joined the motorway when it rammed into an emergency siding in the tunnel near the Swiss town of Sierre.
Both drivers on the coach were killed. No other vehicles were involved. Two pupils were last night in a critical condition in a Lausanne hospital.
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