At least 23 people have died in a school bus fire in Thailand, police said

Bangkok – A bus carrying young students and their teachers caught fire in a Bangkok suburb on Tuesday, killing at least 23 people on board, officials and rescuers said.

“We found 23 bodies on the bus,” Trairong Phiwpan, head of the police forensics bureau, told reporters. The bodies of 20 children and three teachers were recovered, the BBC reported.

The bus was carrying 44 passengers from central Uthai Thani province on a school trip to Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces, Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungruengkit told reporters at the scene.

Videos posted on social media showed the entire bus standing under an overpass ablaze and billowing huge clouds of black smoke. Hours after the fire, bodies were still inside.

The students on the bus were reportedly in elementary and middle school.

Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the driver survived but apparently fled and could not be found.

Rescuers and officials were able to reach the bus hours after the fire was extinguished. Piyalak said they still had not been able to identify the bodies, most of which were found in the middle and rear seats, leading them to believe the fire started at the front of the bus.

According to Thai media reports and rescue workers, the bus was on its way to Nonthaburi when the fire broke out around midday in Pathum Thani province, a northern suburb of the capital.

A rescuer at the scene told Suriya that the fire probably started after one of the tires exploded and the vehicle hit a roadblock.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed her condolences in a post on social media platform X and said the government would take care of medical costs and compensate the victims' families.

“As a mother, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families,” she said in a social media post on X, according to Reuters news agency.

PatRangsit Hospital, located near the scene, said in a news conference that it admitted three young girls, one of whom suffered burns to her face, mouth and eye.