Around 12:30 pm (0530 GMT), a tire burst on a highway in a northern Bangkok suburb, causing the bus to crash into a barrier and catch fire, according to rescuers.
Cameras at the scene captured huge clouds of dense black smoke billowing into the sky as the bus burned beneath a flyover.
Before they started pulling bodies from the blackened wreckage, rescue personnel erected screens to keep firefighters and detectives safe.
“We had to extricate some incredibly tiny corpses. The fire started at the front of the bus, Piyalak Thinkaew, the search leader, told reporters at the scene. “They must have been very young in age.”
“The kids’ instinct was to escape to the back so the bodies were there,” he stated.
He claimed it was difficult to identify the bodies because of how severely burnt they were.
Doctors caring for the children told local media that some of the children who managed to escape had horrific burns to their faces, mouths, and eyes.
