According to the hospital, two of the three pupils that are admitted are seriously ill. A 7-year-old girl sustained severe injuries to her eyes along with facial burns.
As family gathered in the city on Wednesday to assist in identifying their loved ones, Thai police detained the driver of a bus carrying young kids and teachers that caught fire and killed 23 in a suburban area of Bangkok.
About 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Bangkok, in the province of Uthai Thani, was the bus transporting 39 elementary and junior high school pupils and six teachers on a school trip to the provinces of Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi on Tuesday.
The bus was on a route north of the city when the fire broke out, and it spread so fast that many people were trapped inside and could not escape.
The chief of the police forensic division, Trairong Phiwpan, reported that 23 dead had been found inside the bus.
The burning vehicle was powered by natural gas, and it remained too hot to enter for hours, delaying the rescue efforts and confirmation of the overall number of deaths.
In order to offer their DNA samples for the identification process, the families were transported in vans from Uthai Thani to the forensic division of the Police General Hospital in Bangkok on Wednesday.
The head of the Royal Thai Police’s assistant, Kornchai Klaiklung, informed reporters that the forensics team was making every effort to identify the victims.
The driver, who the police have named as Saman Chanput, turned himself in on Tuesday night, a few hours after the incident. According to the police, he has been charged with careless driving resulting in fatalities and injuries, neglecting to stop and assist others, and neglecting to report the collision.
Chayanont Meesati, deputy regional police chief, told reporters that the bus’s driver told investigators he was operating the vehicle normally up until it lost control at its front right tire, collided with another vehicle, and scratched a concrete highway barrier, creating sparks that sparked the fire.
According to Chayanont, the driver fled after frantically trying to get a fire extinguisher from a another bus that was making the same trip, but he was unable to put out the fire and fled in fear.
According to the police, they are also looking into whether the bus business complied with all safety regulations.
