At least two people dead and 30 injured after Spanish coach crashes in French Pyrenees

Two people have died and some 30 left injured, six of them seriously, after a bus crashed in the French Pyrenees on Sunday 1 December.

The bus had left the Barcelona town of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat in the morning, with its passengers scheduled to spend the day taking advantage of Black Friday shopping sales in Andorra. It was on its way back near the town of Porté-Puymorens, in an area also known for winter sports, when it crashed.

According to health services first on scene, in addition to those who died - whose identities have not been revealed - seven people were seriously injured - one of them a four-year-old child, whose condition is of particular concern to doctors. Another ten have been given a less serious prognosis, while twelve more sustained minor injuries.

Given that the incident occurred very close to the Spanish-French border, emergency services were going to transfer most of the injured overnight to the Hospital de la Cerdanya in Puigcerdà in Girona, although the intention was also to take the most seriously injured to another hospital, the Parc Taulí in Sabadell.

The official death toll provided by French officials, who have taken charge of the investigation into the incident, is at least two and possibly four. The accident occurred after 5pm on the French mountain road RN-320 when, for reasons still to be confirmed, the bus started to zig-zag, veered off the left-hand side of the road and smashed into a stone wall. It partially overturned and forced the road to be closed to traffic.

According to emergency service sources, the passengers on the bus - a total of 47 people, including the driver - were mostly residents of L'Hospitalet, with some of them members of the Colombian community living in Barcelona, who had set off on an organised trip to spend the Sunday in Andorra. There, they had planned to go shopping and take advantage of Black Friday sales.

The cost of the round trip was around 27 euros, a very competitive price offered by using the RN-320, a mountain road connecting the Eastern Pyrenees, Ariège, Andorra and Spain, instead of the Puymorens toll tunnel. The bus belonged to the company Hispa Travi, which had rented it without a driver from the tour operator Chavi Tours of L'Hospitalet, the organiser of the trip.