Many children killed as digger crushes school bus

At least 21 children and two adults were killed in Colombia when a construction crew’s earth moving machine tumbled down a steep hillside onto a major highway and crushed a school bus, officials said.

A further 36 children were injured in yesterday’s accident near the capital Bogota.

The machine was being driven along a section of road higher up the hill when it rolled off a ledge and plunged some 70 feet before crushing the bus on the highway below, said Claudia Cubillos, a spokeswoman for the Bogota Health Ministry, which oversees rescue efforts.

Mayor Luis Eduardo Garzon sped to the scene of the accident by motorbike to show solidarity with the victims and their families.

“This is a dramatic, terrible tragedy,” Mr Garzon told reporters at the scene of the crash.

Around a hundred emergency workers and police used heavy machinery to try to clear the mangled wreckage and get to the children – aged between seven and 12 - trapped inside. Ambulances with sirens wailing rushed the injured to hospital.

Police, meanwhile, struggled to keep back panicked families desperate to find out if their children were among the victims.

Sergeant Alberto Cantillo, a spokesman for the Bogota Police Department, said it was not immediately clear whether the two adults were travelling inside the bus. The bus driver survived unharmed, while the digger driver was in a critical condition.

It was not immediately clear why the excavator tumbled off the road, though witnesses said the driver lost control of the vehicle.

Police said an investigation was under way.