A collision between a school bus and an Israeli lorry just north of Jerusalem has claimed the lives of at least eight children. The bus, carrying around 50 children as young as five, was on it's way to Ramallah on a busy road in the West Bank. It overturned when impacted by the lorry and burst into flames. With more than 30 children and their teachers injured it is feared that the death toll will rise. The Israeli-Arab lorry driver was injured by the crash."The toll so far shows that more than 10 children have died and scores of injured are receiving treatment in various medical centres in the West Bank".
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has described the crash as a horrific 'National disaster' and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered his assistance and expressed his sorrow at this time of sadness. Mr Abbas has declared three days of mourning and ordered all flags to be flown at half-mast.
Israeli paramedic at the scene, Shalom Galil believes that the adverse weather conditions were a factor causing the two vehicles to collide head-on.
"What happened here, as you can see in the pictures, is a very steep road with rain and oil. We assume that either the bus or the truck slipped and crashed into each other."
In Ramallah, hospital officials were faced with many badly burned bodies. Hospital director Dr Ahmad Bitawi has confirmed that five children and one teacher had been pronounced dead with a further 54 injured being treated at the moment. Both Israeli and Palestinian emergency services worked closely and efficiently together at the scene of the accident.
"Palestinian firefighters were involved. As far as I could see, there was full co-operation between the firefighters of Judea and Samaria [West Bank] and the Palestinian firefighters."
BBC reporter Jon Donnison, speaking from Jerusalem, has said it was one of the most serious road accidents in this area involving Palestinians in a long time.
Article by Michelle
