Bangkok: 25 feared dead after school bus fire

BANGKOK – A bus carrying young students and their teachers caught fire in a Bangkok suburb on Tuesday. Twenty-five of the inmates feared death, officials and rescuers said.

The bus was carrying 44 passengers from central Uthai Thani province on a school trip to Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces, Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungruengkit told reporters at the scene.

Videos posted on social media showed the entire bus engulfed in flames and huge clouds of black smoke rising as it sat on the side of the road. Hours after the fire, bodies were still on the bus.

The students on the bus were reportedly in elementary and middle school.

Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said officials could not yet confirm the death toll because they had not completed investigating the crime scene. However, based on the number of survivors, 25 deaths are expected.

He said the driver survived but apparently fled and has not yet been found.

The fire was on its way to Nonthaburi when the fire broke out around midday in Pathum Thani province, a northern suburb of the capital, according to Thai media reports and rescue workers.

A rescuer at the scene told Suriya that the fire probably started after one of the tires exploded and the vehicle hit a roadblock.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed her condolences in a post on social media platform X and said the government would take care of medical costs and compensate the victims’ families.

The Hongsakul Khlong Luang 21 rescue group posted on its Facebook page that it had found at least 10 bodies on the bus. The group said at least 19 people survived the fire.