Beijing — A bus crashed into a group of students and their parents at a school in the east China early Tuesday killed 11 people and injured 13, police said.
The students and parents were at the gate of a middle school in the city of Tai’an in the eastern province of Shandong shortly before 7:30 a.m., police in Dongping County said in a social media post. Tuesday was the second day back to school after summer vacation for children across China.
Six parents and five students were killed, it said. One of the injured was in serious condition, while the others were listed as stable, the department said.
The driver was in police custody and the incident is under investigation.
Reuters/Social media
The bus was specially adapted to transport students, it said. It did not say who was responsible for driving the bus. Many schools outsource such services to private companies or individuals.
School safety, including overloaded school buses and poorly designed buildings, has long been a problem in China.
In 2017, a dozen people, including 11 kindergarten students, were killed when a school bus crashed and burned in a tunnel in the eastern Chinese city of Weihai, also in Shandong province. The driver, six Chinese children and five South Korean children were killed. It is still unclear whether the crash was intentional or a result of unsafe driving.
China has cracked down on transport hazards, adding training and vehicle inspections.
China has also suffered many cases in recent years attacks on school childrenoften using knives or homemade explosives. The suspects were generally found to hold grudges and take revenge over personal matters or against society more generally.