At least 23 children and teachers feared dead in Thailand after school bus fire

Sixteen students and three teachers were sent to a local hospital for treatment, as Geraint Vincent reports

At least 23 people are feared dead in Thailand after a bus carrying young students and their teachers caught fire in suburban Bangkok on Tuesday.

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

Sixteen students and three teachers were sent to a hospital for treatment.

Acting police commissioner Kitrat Phanphet said officers were still working to identify the dead but three teachers and 20 students remain unaccounted for.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately known. Kitrat said the initial investigation indicates a tyre had exploded and caused sparks, which ignited a blaze that spread through the bus. He did not elaborate.

Police were looking for the driver who appeared to have fled the scene, Kitrat said, adding that the bus company and individuals involved may be charged if they are found responsible.

“Such an incident causes a great sorrow and grief,” he told reporters at a news conference.

“There is no way we will distort the fact or help anyone” escape justice, Kitrat said.

Piyalak Thinkaew, a rescuer from the Ruam Katanyu Foundation, told reporters that most of the bodies were found in the middle and back seats, leading them to assume the victims had moved back and that the fire had started at the front of the bus.

Videos posted on social media showed the entire bus engulfed in fire with huge plumes of black smoke pouring out as it stood on the side of the road. Bodies were still inside the bus hours after the fire.

The students on the bus were reported to be in elementary and junior high school.

Anutin Charnvirakul said the driver survived but appeared to have fled and could not yet be found.

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Thai media reports and rescuers said the bus was heading to Nonthaburi when the fire started around noon in Pathum Thani province, a northern suburb of the capital.

The patRangsit Hospital, which is located near the scene, said in a news conference that it admitted three young girls, one of whom suffered burns to the face, mouth and eye.

Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra today visited survivors in a hospital and a care centre in the northern suburb of Bangkok.

Earlier, she offered her condolences in a post on social media platform X, saying the government would take care of medical expenses and compensate the victims’ families.

She appeared tearful and emotional after hearing the news as she left offices at Government House in the capital, dabbing a tissue to her nose and saying little to reporters.

The 38-year-old is a mother of two young children and famously campaigned while heavily pregnant in the run-up to last year’s general election.

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