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National tragedy: Locals watch from a cliff as rescue workers move the bus in which at least eight schoolchildren were killed after it hit a lorry in the West Bank. |
At least ten Palestinian children were killed, out of which nine were kids and several injured when an Israhelli truck hit a Palestinian school bus on a road in the West Bank.
The vehicle was carrying around 50 students when it flipped onto its side and burst into flames. Israhelli officials said the crash took place at a road junction in northern al-Quds (Jerusalem) today.
Medical officials at the main hospital in Ramallah said some of the victims were "of kindergarten age" and that many of the bodies had been badly burned. An Israhelli spokeswoman said earlier that the children were aged between 10 and 16.
Family members of some of the injured children told the AFP news agency that the bus passengers were from a Palestinian school in Anata in East Jerusalem and were going on an outing to Ramallah.
Police said the bus flipped over on impact and burst into flames. "Firefighters began to take bodies out of the bus. We saw there was nothing more to be done," Shalom Galil, a paramedic at the scene, said.
He said on Israhelli Radio that it appeared the two vehicles had collided head-on in the rain on a "very steep and slippery road".
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced a three-day mourning period for the dead children. Abbas stressed that the injured will be sent abroad, if needed, for treatment.
Israhellis celebrate death of Palestinian children killed in accident
Israhellis were celebrating the deaths of the Palestinian children, writing derogatory comments on a wall of a news post regarding the accident.