Canada
“I helped to overpower the driver”: the bus hits a daycare center, injuring eight people
Police car in Quebec (icon image)
© Jacques Boissinot / Picture Alliance
Several people were injured after a bus accident in the province of Québec in Canada. The driver was arrested. Eyewitnesses report that he was “half undressed” and “deliberately drove towards the daycare center”.
A bus hit a daycare center in Canada, seriously injuring several people. In the accident on Wednesday in the city of Laval in the province of Quebec, eight people were seriously injured, including several children, the rescue workers said. Accordingly, several children were trapped under the bus.
The bus driver was arrested, according to Quebec Minister of Public Safety François Bonnardel. The police investigated whether the driver might have steered into the daycare center on purpose. The building was partially destroyed. The police cordoned it off over a wide area.
Pictures showed the bus hitting an area of the building that is not on the street or in a parking lot. They also show part of the roof collapsing onto the front of the bus.
Canada’s prime minister ‘devastated’
“I helped subdue the driver who got off the bus,” a father told Radio Canada. This witness’s wife, who was also present during the incident, said the driver was “half undressed”. The two witnesses said they saw the driver “deliberately drive toward the daycare.”
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “devastated” after the incident. Quebec’s Prime Minister François Legault spoke of a “horrifying drama”. “I’m thinking of the children, the parents and the employees,” he wrote on Twitter.