Swiss coach crash kills dozens, most of them schoolchildren Belgium is in mourning after a coach carrying a party of schoolchildren crashed on its way back from a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps, killing 28 people, including 22 schoolchildren. The crash is believed to be the one of the deadliest in Switzerland for 30 years. The coach, which had 52 people on board, most of them 12-year-old schoolchildren from Lommel and Heverlee in Flanders, crashed at around 9pm on Tuesday night in the canton of Valais, which borders Italy, police said. It had been travelling towards the town of Sion when it veered off the road near Sierre, hit a kerb and crashed into a tunnel wall. Police pictures showed the front third of the bus smashed in by the impact, its front torn open and debris scattered over the ground. Twenty-four more children were injured, some seriously, and were being treated in hospital, police said. Two drivers also died. The school party had been on a skiing holiday in the Valais resort of Val d'Anniviers. The Belgian prime minister, Elio Di Rupo, said he would be travelling to Switzerland later on Wednesday. "The prime minister has with great horror taken note of the terrible accident that has happened in Switzerland," a statement said. It is a sad day for all of Belgium. Police said the causes of the crash were as yet unknown, while Didier Reynders, the Belgian foreign minister, described it as "incomprehensible." He told French radio the bus had been one of three travelling back from the Alps together, and that the other two had made it safely back to Belgium. "It is an event that will shake the whole Belgian population when they wake up this morning to such extremely sad news," he said, adding that authorities were still trying to identify all the victims. A government spokesman said a crisis centre had been set up and an emergency number provided for families. The crash is one of the worst in Switzerland's history. In 1982, 39 people, mostly German tourists, were killed when their bus collided with a train on a railway crossing near Zurich. In 2005, 12 died and 15 were injured when a bus crashed in a Valais ravine, while in 2001, a truck crashed in the Gotthard tunnel under the Alps, causing a fire that claimed the lives of 11 people. This latest disaster comes just a month after a coach carrying a party of British schoolchildren and their supervisors back from a skiing holiday in the Italian Alps careered off the motorway in northern France, killing one teacher, Peter Rippington, and injuring several teenagers.