Officials and rescuers stated that more than 20 people were on board a bus that caught fire in a suburb of Bangkok on Tuesday, killing or seriously injuring more than a dozen kids and teachers.
The bus was transporting 44 students from central Uthai Thani province to Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces on a field trip, according to Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungruengkit, who spoke to media at the site.
As it lay on the side of the road, videos surfaced online showing the bus completely engulfed in flames and massive plumes of black smoke billowing out.
Even hours after the fire, bodies remained inside the vehicle.
Elementary and junior high school pupils were reportedly on board.
Officials have not yet completed their investigation into the scene, therefore Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul stated that they could not confirm the number of casualties.
He stated that the driver was able to stay alive, but that he had apparently run away and was not yet located.
The number of those remaining missing has been reduced to 23—three teachers and twenty students—from 25 originally reported by Anutin.
However, rescuer Piyalak Thinkaew of the Ruamkatanyu Foundation informed reporters later that two further survivors had been discovered, bringing the total down to 23.
After the fire was extinguished, officials and rescue workers were granted access to the bus some hours later.
According to Piyalak, the majority of the dead were discovered in the middle and rear seats, leaving them to presume that the fire began near the front of the bus.
Unfortunately, they are still unable to identify them.
Approximately noon in Pathum Thani province, a northern suburb of the capital, a fire broke out on the bus its route to Nonthaburi, according to Thai media and rescuers.
Nearby patRangsit Hospital accepted three little girls, including one with facial, oral, and ocular burns, according to a news conference.
