Northern Irish driver killed in school tour bus crash

A Northern Irish bus driver has died and a 13-year-old boy has suffered a fractured skull after a bus carrying 34 British school pupils crashed in Belgium.

Brentwood School in Essex confirmed the coach was carrying children aged between 11 and 13, and that one child was in intensive care after suffering a head injury.

Six teachers were also on the coach which was travelling to Cologne in Germany when it crashed into a bridge in Middelkerke, West Flanders, and shot off the road. The coach involved in the crash is owned by Richmond Coaches of Ballinderry Road, Lisburn, in Northern Ireland, and a company spokesman confirmed it only employed Northern Irish drivers. He added that it was now trying to establish the identity of the driver and his assistant, adding: “Any incident involving a coach crash like this is clearly a tragedy.” Local councillor Patrick Catney, who knows the McKenna family who run Richmond Coaches, described the crash as a “tragedy”.