France road crash kills at least 42: live updates

At least 42 people, most of them French pensioners, killed when a bus collided with a lorry in southwestern France. Follow latest updates

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• At least 42 people killed in a road collision in southwestern France
• Most deadly road accident in France since 1982
• Bus and a lorry collide head-on and burst into flames
• Most of the passengers thought to be French pensioners setting off on an outing



Puisseguin Mayor Xavier Sublett has said on RTL radio that the truck driver lost control of the vehicle.

The bus driver "tried to avoid it, but the truck came and hit it, and he couldn't do anything except activate the mechanism to open the doors to allow some people to get out," Mr Sublett said.

Other authorities remained cautious about the circumstances of the crash. The top government official for the Aquitaine region, Pierre Dartout, told reporters an investigation is under way, and Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said it was too early to know what exactly happened.

More than 200 gendarmes are securing the crash site at Puisseguin Photo: @Gendarmerie

10.25

Local residents have described their shock at the crash. Xavier Sublett, the mayor of the tiny village of Puisseguin, told the Local news website:

Everyone has been impacted by the tragedy, because we all know someone who was on that bus.

Another witness, named as Nicolas, said:

I saw a huge, thick column of smoke. I was shocked. Then I saw a police car and fire trucks all over the place.

I had the impression it was like a scene from a war and I am not exaggerating. The further I went along the road, the more I realised that something very serious had happened.

François Decauze, the organiser of the coach trip, said:

We are all in shock. It’s terrible. We are getting information as it arrives. The phone has not stopped ringing. We are in shock. We don’t know what to do. Our friends were on board the bus.


10.20

French media report that families of the victims have started arrived at the scene.


10.00

Emergency services personnel work at the site of the crash Photo: AFP/Getty


09.45

A local authority press release says there are eight people injured: two with brain trauma, two with burns and four lightly injured, in addition to the 42 people killed.

They have set up a support centre for relatives in a local school.


09.42

French authorities have opened a preliminary investigation into a crash between a bus and truck near Bordeaux that killed at least 42 people.

The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, according to Pierre Dartout, the top government official for the Aquitaine region, who announced the investigation to reporters near the crash site.

Both vehicles caught fire after the crash on Friday morning.

Emergency services at the crash scene in Puisseguin Photo: Derniere Minute

The mayor of the town where the collision occurred, Xavier Sublett of Puisseguin, said on i-Tele television that the driver of the bus managed to open the door, allowing eight people to escape.

He said helicopters were evacuating severely burned victims.


09.37

Images shown on French television show the coach as a charred shell that has been entirely burned.

French television station BFMTV has shown some images of the crash site Photo: BFMTV

"I saw a cloud of smoke," said local resident Yvette Seguy on France's i-Tele TV station, adding that it took place in the countryside on a bend that is known to be dangerous.


09.16

Full statement from French president Francois Hollande on accident in Gironde:

A terrible accident has taken place in Puisseguin in the Gironde region on road B17. A bus and a truck carrying logs collided, causing the vehicles to catch fire, resulting in dozens of fatalities.

According to a provisional estimate, 42 people have died and several are seriously injured. It is an immense tragedy.

The regional crisis command centre has been deployed. The prime minister, the interior minister and secretary of state for transport are all travelling to the area this morning.

They will seek to determine the causes of the accident. All the emergency services are on site to support the victims' families. I send to the families and friends of the victims my sincere condolences and those of the nation.

Emergency services personnel escort people away from the site of the crash Photo: AFP/Getty


09.10

The currenct confirmed death toll stands at 42, with five people injured.

Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, sends his "compassion and support" to the families of the victims:


08.56

All the victims of the bus collision in southern France seem to be French and from the region, according to an interior ministry spokesman.


08.48

The mayor of Petit-Palais village, Patricia Raichini, has confirmed that the bus passengers were members of a pensioners' club in her village and that they were on an excursion.


Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and the transport minister are due to arrive at the scene of the accident later his morning.


08.42

A local butcher has told French news website The Local that the bus skidded as it went round a bend and smashed into the truck. The butcher, named as Mr Paludetto, said:

It's a disaster. The village is in shock. The crash happened a few hundred metres away. All the roads are blocked.

There are helicopters above and firefighters and police are everywhere. There must be at least 10 ambulances.


08.38

Local media said that bus had set out from the village of Petit-Palais, around five miles to the north of the scene of the accident, and was bringing the pensioners on an outing to Les Landes region on the coast to the west of Bordeaux.

The accident is the worst in France since 1982, when 53 people, among them 44 children, died in a bus crash in Burgundy.


08.36

French media reports that the death toll has risen to 49, with five people injured and three people unharmed.


08.30

"An accident has caused many deaths in Gironde," tweets French president Francois Hollande0, speaking on a visit to Athens. "The French government is fully mobilised for this terrible tragedy."


Gironde is the name for the area surrounding Bordeaux.


08.26

At least 60 firefighters have been sent to the scene of the crash, according to Twitter reports:

The country's interior minister will also go to the accident site:


08.15

At least 42 people have died after a bus and a lorry collided head-on and burst into flames in southwestern France, rescue services said.

The two vehicles were travelling along a road in Puisseguin-Saint-Émilion, near the town of Libourne to the east of Bordeaux, when they collided and burst into flames at around 7.30am local time.

The accident happened on this country road near Libourne and Puisseguin Photo: Google Street View

At least eight people managed to escape from the burning bus, local media reported. The driver of the bus was believed to be among the dead.

Most of the passengers were thought to be adults. Europe 1 radio said they were pensioners who were setting off on an outing.