Four dead as 'special needs school' bus is hit by a train

Four people have died, including two children aged 12 and 15, after a train hit a school minibus in northern Belgium on Tuesday. The bus was transporting students from a special educational needs school, according to local news channel VRT NWS. The collision occurred on a closed-level crossing in the town of Buggenhout, East Flanders, about 20 miles northwest of the capital, Brussels.'With great dismay, I learnt of the tragic accident in Buggenhout, where a school bus was struck by a train. My thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones. I wish the injured much strength,' the country's interior minister Bernard Quintin wrote on X. 'The impact was extremely violent,' said a spokesman for the rail network Infrabel, describing the toll as 'dramatic'.