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6 children killed in school bus crash in French port

French police work near the wreckage of a school minibus after it crashed into a truck near Rochefort on February 11, 2016, killing at least six children, police said, a day after another road accident involving a school bus left two youngsters dead.
The head-on smash with a lorry carrying rubble came around 7:15 am (0615 GMT) near Rochefort in the western Charente-Maritime region.
French police work near the wreckage of a school minibus after it crashed into a truck near Rochefort on February 11, 2016, killing at least six children, police said, a day after another road accident involving a school bus left two youngsters dead. The head-on smash with a lorry carrying rubble came around 7:15 am (0615 GMT) near Rochefort in the western Charente-Maritime region. XAVIER LEOTY/AFP/Getty Images

PARIS – Six French children were killed Thursday when the part of a truck swung open and raked through their school bus in a town on the country’s Atlantic coast, officials said.

The circumstances of the early morning crash in Rochefort were under investigation and the French minister in charge of transport was headed to the scene. Eighteen adolescents were in the bus at the time, according to the French president’s office.

Rochefort Mayor Herve Blanche confirmed that at least six children died.

“The word chaos is not strong enough. This is such a tragedy,” said Jerome Servolle, an UNSA police union official in the town. Servolle said a gate-like object swung open on the truck, slicing through the school bus at window height.

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