Driver who fled Thailand school bus blaze that killed 23 arrested

The driver told investigators he ran away because he panicked. Victims of the fire were still being identified on Wednesday

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Thai forensic officers inspect the burnt-out bus in Bangkok on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 1:31pm, 2 Oct 2024Updated: 1:35pm, 2 Oct 2024

Thai police have arrested the driver of a bus carrying young students and teachers that caught fire and killed 23 in suburban Bangkok, as families arrived in the capital on Wednesday to help identify their loved ones.

The bus carrying six teachers and 39 students in elementary and junior high school was travelling from Uthai Thani province, about 300km (186 miles) north of Bangkok, for a school trip in Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces on Tuesday. The fire started while the bus was on a highway north of Thailand’s capital and spread so quickly many were unable to escape.

Trairong Phiwpan, head of the police forensic department, said 23 bodies were recovered from the bus. The recovery work and confirmation of the total dead had been delayed earlier because the burned vehicle, which was fuelled with natural gas, remained too hot to enter for hours.

The families were driven from Uthai Thani in vans to the forensic department at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok on Wednesday to provide their DNA samples for the identification process.

Kornchai Klaiklung, assistant to the Royal Thai Police chief, told reporters the forensics team was working as fast as it could to identify the victims.

Medical staff wait outside the police hospital’s forensic department in Bangkok on Wednesday to transfer the coffins of the bus fire victims. Photo: AFP

The driver, identified by the police as Saman Chanput, surrendered on Tuesday evening several hours after the fire. Police said they have charged him with reckless driving causing deaths and injuries, failing to stop to help others and failing to report the accident.