Two young children died on Wednesday morning after a bus in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, Canada crashed into a daycare center. This is reported by the police, who suspect that the 51-year-old bus driver acted on purpose. The man has been arrested.
ADVV, ADN
08-02-23, 5:07 PM
Latest update:
08-02-23, 21:03
Source:
CTV News, 7sur7, BELGA
The accident occurred at about 8:30 a.m. local time. Several injured children had to be freed from under the bus, the emergency services say.
Two children eventually succumbed to their injuries. Six other children who were taken to hospital are out of danger, police spokeswoman Erika Landry said. The childcare usually accommodates between 80 and 85 children in total.
“We think it is on purpose, but we do not know the motive,” said the head of the local police, Pierre Brochet. The driver has no criminal record.
“Half undressed”
Parents on the scene say the driver was “half naked” and the man “deliberately drove into the building”. An anonymous city bus driver told AFP he is sure “this is not an accident”. “I do this route every day (…) The childcare is too far from the roundabout.”
A large safety zone has been set up around the partially destroyed childcare building. “Many parents are in panic because they can’t get closer to the scene of the accident, and their children are still there,” said one mother.
In a first reaction, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is “devastated” by the news. “We all are. I can’t imagine what the families are going through right now.”
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