Day of heartbreak and courage for children’s grieving families

Family members of those who died, some sobbing, were driven from a hotel in the southern Swiss town of Sion to the nearby mortuary, where the bodies of some of the 22 schoolchildren and six adults killed in Tuesday’s crash were being kept.

“Where possible, the bodies will be shown to the families,” said police spokesman Jean-Marie Bornet. “In some cases this is not possible because the bodies are too badly injured.”

Afterwards, some of the relatives were driven to the site of the crash inside the Tunnel de Geronde, near the Swiss town of Sierre.

Walking in a solemn procession, the family members carried flowers to where the 21 Belgians and seven Dutch were killed.

Christain Varone, police commander for the Swiss canton of Valais, said: “They showed great dignity and courage.”

The Belgian coach carrying 52 people hit a kerb inside the tunnel on the A9 motorway and then smashed into a concrete wall of an emergency stop space on Tuesday night, less than an hour after it set out to take the children home to their schools in the Belgian towns of Heverlee and Lommel from a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps. Twenty-four other children were hurt, some seriously.

Mr Bornet said authorities were working to release the bodies of all the victims as soon as possible. Military planes have been provided for their repatriation, which is expected today, a national day of mourning in Belgium.

Meanwhile, some of those children injured were released from hospital, leaving 12 children still in the Sion area. Three others who were more seriously injured were transferred to a hospital in Lausane, and one was taken to a hospital in Bern.

A doctor treating some of the injured told reporters the youngsters had been asking about the fate of their school friends.

Dr Michael Canans, who works at the hospital in Sion, said: “Slowly, they understand that a lot of their friends did not survive so it’s a very traumatic event, of course. They talk, and they ask, but at the moment we are not 100 per cent sure who survived and who did not.”

Three of the injured children are believed to have been flown home to Brussels last night, while three others were reported to have left Switzerland with their parents by car.

Investigators are still trying to explain why the modern, well-equipped coach suddenly veered to the right as it drove through the mile-long tunnel.

Olivier Elsig, prosecutor for the Swiss state of Valais, said officials were looking at three possible causes – a technical problem with the bus, a health problem with the driver or human error.

Swiss and Belgian news media have reported survivors of the crash claimed the driver reached to change a disc on the onboard entertainment system shortly before the crash.

Authorities, however, warned against drawing conclusions too early, having earlier disputed initial theories the bus had been speeding at the time of the collision. Investigators have video footage of the crash from cameras inside the tunnel.