{"id":666061,"date":"2026-05-26T13:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T13:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/666061\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T13:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T13:26:09","slug":"four-dead-and-two-injured-after-train-hits-school-bus-in-belgium-deputy-pm-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/666061\/","title":{"rendered":"Four dead and two injured after train hits school bus in Belgium, deputy PM says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Published on 26\/05\/2026 – 11:16 GMT+2\u2022Updated
\n 15:05\n <\/p>\n

A train hit a school minibus killing four people, including two children, in a “horrific accident” in northern Belgium, authorities said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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Another five schoolchildren were injured in the crash at a railway crossing in Buggenhout, a Dutch-speaking municipality about 25 kilometres northwest of Brussels.<\/p>\n

“A tragic collision between a train and a school bus took place in Buggenhout this morning. Four people have been killed, including two children,” Belgium’s deputy prime minister Maxime Prevot wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Images from the scene in the Flanders region showed a badly damaged minibus lying on its side on a road next to a railway line, with tents set up by emergency workers around.<\/p>\n

The commuter train remained halted on the tracks as forensic teams examined the site.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Bart De Wever posted on social media that he was “deeply moved by the horrific accident…My thoughts go out to the affected families.”<\/p>\n

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear and an investigation has been opened, the public prosecutor’s office said.<\/p>\n

Belgium’s Infrabel rail agency said footage from the scene showed that the barriers at the crossing had been closed and a red light was showing at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n

“The impact was extremely violent,” Infrabel spokesman Frederic Sacre told the AFP news agency, adding that the train was travelling at 120 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n

“The minibus was thrown about 15 metres into a metal pylon,” he said.<\/p>\n

‘Tragic accident’<\/p>\n

The vehicle was carrying seven pupils from a school for children with learning disabilities, authorities told a press conference.<\/p>\n

Two of them, aged 15 and 12, were killed by the impact alongside the 49-year-old driver and a 27-year-old supervisor, according to Lisa De Wilde, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office.<\/p>\n

The other five children on board were taken to a local hospital where they remained in stable conditions, having sustained severe injuries, she said.<\/p>\n

Their lives were not in danger, added police spokeswoman An Berger.<\/p>\n

No one on the train was hurt.<\/p>\n

Belgian interior minister Bernard Quintin expressed his deep sadness at the “tragic accident”, writing on X that “my thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones.”<\/p>\n

“I wish the injured much strength,” he wrote, thanking the emergency services for their work.<\/p>\n

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen joined in the stream of commiserations from politicians, saying she was “heartbroken” by the collision.<\/p>\n

“My deepest condolences go out to the victims’ families and their loved ones,” she posted online.<\/p>\n

“Today, Europe grieves with Belgium.”<\/p>\n

Additional sources \u2022 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 26\/05\/2026 – 11:16 GMT+2\u2022Updated 15:05 A train hit a school minibus killing four people, including two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15106,291116,4,450,451,3,3858,452,453,261143],"class_list":["post-666061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-train-crash","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-school","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-train-crash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}