A bus carrying dozens of primary school children has crashed and caught fire just outside the Thai capital, Bangkok.
16 children and three teachers are reported to have escaped but the whereabouts of 22 students and three teachers are unknown, according to the Minister of Transport in the country.
Thailand’s prime minister said the crash had resulted in “deaths and injuries” – but the actual death toll was yet to be confirmed.
Photos show the bus destroyed by fire. Investigators were said to have been unable to enter the car due to the heat, according to local media.
Eight of the 19 people who managed to escape were sent to the hospital for treatment, said a health department official.
The bus was one of three carrying children and teachers returning from a school trip in the northern province of Uthai Thani.
Transport Minister Suriyahe Juangroongruangkit said the bus was running on “very dangerous” compressed natural gas.
“This is a very sad incident,” Mr Suriyahe told reporters at the scene.
“The department must find a way… if possible, so that vehicles carrying people like these are prohibited from using this type of fuel because it is very dangerous.”
Meanwhile, Thailand’s prime minister ordered ministers to visit the scene.
“As a mother, I would like to express my deepest regrets to the families of the deceased,” said Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
“The government will bear all the medical expenses and compensation for those killed,” he added.
Piyalak Thinkaew, who leads the search team, said that the bodies of the dead were badly burned, and it was difficult to identify them.
“Some of the bodies we found were very small,” he told reporters at the scene, adding that the fire started in the front of the bus.
“The children’s idea was to run to the back so that the bodies could be there,” he said.
The bus was traveling on the highway to Bangkok when a tire burst and crashed into a border, rescue workers said in footage broadcast on local television.
Video footage from the scene showed flames from the bus as it burned under the overpass, with huge clouds of thick black smoke billowing into the sky.
The driver fled the scene of the accident but authorities are confident that he will be tracked down, according to Thai Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who spoke to reporters at the scene.
The ages of the children on board are not yet known, but the school has students between the ages of three and 15.
Thailand has one of the worst road safety records in the worldwith unsafe vehicles and impaired driving contributing to the deaths of approximately 20,000 people each year.
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