All affected individuals have received essential support, including food and temporary shelter.
Diplomats and consuls from the Ukrainian Embassy, led by Ambassador Vadym Omelchenko, visited the site of the tragic bus accident in the Sarthe department, where many Ukrainian citizens, including teenagers, were injured. This was reported by the Ukrainian Embassy in France.
The Ukrainian high school students were returning home to Bukovina after an exchange program with the La Touche agricultural high school in Brittany. On their way to Paris, the bus veered off the road for unknown reasons.
The Embassy expressed gratitude to their French partners for the extensive mobilization of emergency services, rescuers, gendarmes, and medical personnel who promptly arrived at the scene, provided assistance to the injured, and evacuated the wounded.
Also present at the scene with Ambassador Omelchenko were French Minister of Labor Astrid Panosyan-Bouve, Sarthe Prefect Emmanuel Aubry, and representatives of local municipalities and the region. The situation remains under the close attention of the Office of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs' crisis center and local authorities are actively involved in the response.
According to available information, four adults have died, three of whom were Ukrainian citizens. We express our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the deceased. Two individuals are in critical condition, and French doctors are fighting for their lives. The rest of the children sustained minor or moderate injuries and are receiving necessary medical care.
The Embassy team met with the Ukrainian high school students. All affected individuals received necessary support, including food and temporary accommodation. Ukrainian associations in France also quickly arrived at the scene to assist our citizens.
“The children are, of course, under stress, but they are united and holding strong because they are true Ukrainians. They are most concerned about their injured friends,” shared Ambassador Vadym Omelchenko. “We also visited those hospitalized in the city of Le Mans. A medical team is working with each of them according to their condition. We spoke with everyone allowed by the doctors and helped to establish contact with their parents. The main priority now is their recovery, and later, their return home.”
As the teenagers themselves shared, the group was returning to Ukraine but had planned to stop in Paris, as for many it was a dream to see the French capital.
The Embassy remains in constant contact with French services and provides administrative and consular assistance to Ukrainian citizens.
Recall that the bus carrying adults and teenagers from Ukraine overturned in a ditch on the A81 highway on June 13 at 11:58 AM, near the town of Degré, between the Sillé-le-Guillaume and Le Mans Nord interchanges.
According to preliminary data, besides the four deceased and 11 seriously injured, 34 people sustained minor injuries.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, more than 50 emergency teams were mobilized in France to urgently transport the children to hospitals.