Four people, including two teenagers, were killed in Belgium today when a train crashed into a school bus at a level railway crossing near the Flemish town of Bugenhout, RTL TV reported, citing Transport Minister Jean-Luc Crick, while Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Prevost confirmed the news.
The other two victims are the driver of the school bus and the attendant without it being clear yet whether they are male or female, the minister said, adding that two other people were seriously injured.
Federal police spokeswoman Anne Berger told broadcaster VRT that seven students, the driver and one or an attendant were on the school bus. She also clarified that none of the passengers on the train were injured.
The accident occurred at 08:08 in the morning on a level crossing near Bugenhout railway station, about 23 kilometres from Brussels.
The accident occurred at 08:08 in the morning on a level crossing near Bugenhout railway station, about 23 kilometres from Brussels.
According to Frederic Sacre, a spokesman for the Belgian rail network operator Infrabel, “the minibus was hit by a train that was about to stop at the next station.”
As Crick said, security cameras showed that the crash barriers at the crossing had come down.
The circumstances of the accident, however, remain very unclear.
Sacre said the barrier was down and the light was red. “We have footage that shows it,” he said.
The train that hit it was travelling at about 120km/h and was about to start braking as it approached a station about a kilometre away.
The minibus was then “ejected about fifteen metres onto a metal pillar supporting some of the level crossing cables,” the Infrabel spokesman added.
Interior Minister Bernard Quentin wrote in X: “I was deeply saddened to learn of the tragic accident that occurred in Bugenhout. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. I wish the injured a lot of courage,” he wrote on the social network X.
He wrote on the social network X.
The minister also thanked the emergency response agencies “for their swift response at the scene of the accident.”
Representatives of the Belgian police were not immediately available for comment.
Representatives of the Belgian police were not immediately available for comment.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was “devastated”.
“My sincere condolences to the families of the victims and their loved ones. Today, Europe mourns with Belgium,” she posted on X.
Belgium, where a dense rail network crisscrosses through towns and villages, has a history of level crossing accidents.
In 2025 five people were killed in such accidents, Infrabel said on its website, the lowest number recorded since 2020.
