Thailand: 11 teachers, school staff die as bus topples and catches fire in Chonburi

School employee says school director was behind the wheel and was among the injured.

Eleven staff members from a Bangkok elementary school were killed in a road accident on Friday evening when their bus flipped over and caught fire.

The accident took place on a motorway in Chonburi province while the teachers and other staff were travelling back to Bangkok from a seminar in Rayong province. All the passengers were from a small private elementary school in eastern Bangkok.

"The van's tyre burst and it turned over before catching on fire," an official from Thailand's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department told AFP.

The local media published photos of the accident which showed the toppled vehicle engulfed in flames on the side of the road.

The disaster official said four people survived the accident with injuries. A school employee said the school director was behind the wheel and was among the injured.

In 2015, World Health Organization (WHO) prepared a report which showed that Thailand has the second most dangerous roads in the world in terms of per capita deaths. WHO estimates that about 24,000 people die each year in traffic accidents in Thailand.

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