Indonesia bus crash kills 52, mostly children
( 2003-10-09 09:30) (Agencies)
At least 52 people, mostly young schoolgirls, were
killed when their bus collided with a truck and a minivan in Indonesia's East
Java, a senior police officer said on Thursday.
The bus was carrying the schoolgirls from Bali to Yogyakarta when the
accident occurred in Situbondo regency, some 515 miles east of the capital
Jakarta, late on Wednesday night.
"There are 52 victims so far. They are the passengers of the bus and were
burned to death as a result of the crash," said Situbondo Police Chief Tugas Dwi
Apriyanto.
He said bodies, mostly of girls from a Yogyakarta high school, had been
removed from the wreckage and an unknown number of injured taken to nearby
hospitals.
The driver and his assistant survived the crash, although they were badly
injured, he said. The fate of those in the other vehicles involved in the crash
was not known.
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