Accident leaves 5 children dead in Ramallah

President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday announced a three-day mourning period following the tragic road accident outside Ramallah earlier in the day in which six people, including five children, were killed.= A bus carrying school children from Nur el-Huda school in the town of Anata, just outside Jerusalem, collided head on with a truck on a main road outside al-Ram, few kilometers south of Ramallah. Five children between the age of 4 and 6 years and their teacher were killed on the spot, said Palestinian police and medical sources. They said 28 others were injured, seven of them seriously and had to undergo surgery at Ramallah hospital and Hadassah Ein Karem, where the more critical ones were taken. Families of the children, who were on a field trip to Ramallah, rushed to Ramallah hospital the moment they heard of the incident. Some later left the hospital with their children, who had suffered minor injuries, while others remained behind waiting to know the condition of their children. According to medical sources, the bus overturned and then caught on fire causing the most number of deaths among the children, who were burnt to death. In the statement announcing the three-day mourning during which flags will fly at half mast, Abbas declared the dead children as martyrs and ordered the injured children should receive proper medical attention and be transferred for treatment elsewhere if necessary. Abbas dispatched his general secretary, Tayeb Abdul Rahim, to visit the injured children in Ramallah hospital and give his condolences to the bereaved families of the dead. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also visited the injured in hospital.