A view of victims after a bus accident in Dongping county, Shandong province, China, in this still image obtained from a social media video released on September 3, 2024. (Videograb via Reuters)
A bus slammed into a group of students and their parents at a school in eastern China early Tuesday (September 3, 2024), killing 11 people and injuring 13, police said.
Students and parents were at the gate of a middle school in Tai’an city in the eastern province of Shandong just before 7:30 a.m., the Dongping County Police Department said in a post on social media.
The department said six parents and five students were killed. Of the injured, one is in critical condition while the others are said to be stable.
He said the driver is in police custody and the incident is under investigation.
It said the bus was specially designed to transport students. It did not say who was responsible for driving the bus. Many schools contract out such services to private companies or individuals.
School safety in China, including overcrowded school buses and poorly designed buildings, has long been a problem.
In 2017, a dozen people, including 11 kindergarten students, were killed when a school bus crashed and caught fire in a tunnel in the eastern Chinese city of Weihai, also in Shandong province. The accident killed the driver, six Chinese children and five South Korean children. It is still unclear whether the accident was intentional or the result of unsafe driving.
China has taken tough action on transportation hazards, adding training and vehicle inspections.
There have been a number of attacks on school children in China in recent years, often using knives or homemade explosives. Suspects are usually found to be harboring grudges over personal matters or seeking revenge against society.