No seatbelts on girls' crash bus

Pupils and staff at the schools involved will be offered counselling

A school bus which crashed killing five girls was not fitted with seatbelts.

The bus was carrying pupils from four secondary schools when it overturned in County Meath, in the Irish Republic.

Forty-six people were taken to hospital and six were said to be in a serious condition. The girls who died were aged 13 to 16 and went to the same school.

Police, operator Bus Eireann and health and safety officials have launched an investigation and said the cause of the crash was not yet known.

Sympathies given

Two cars were also involved in the collision at Casey's Cross at Kentstown, near Navan, on Monday afternoon. All three drivers were taken to hospital.

Some 14 ambulances travelled to the scene, along with heavy lifting equipment to free people trapped in the wreckage.

It's a huge tragedy , an enormous shock to the whole country Taoiseach Bertie Ahern

The more seriously injured were taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, the others to Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. A number of them have been discharged.

Outside hospital relatives of the survivors spoke of their relief, but also expressed their sympathies for the families of those killed.

Steven Gray, from Slane, County Meath, said his brother John, 16, had escaped with a broken shoulder and cuts.

"It's a relief he's alive," he said. "There are so many people dead, and it could have been a lot worse. But you have to think of the five families of the children who died."

Ireland's prime minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, described the incident as appalling.

"It's a huge tragedy, an enormous shock to the whole country," he said.

Irish President Mary McAleese broke off from official engagements during a state visit to the US to speak of her distress at the "tragic loss of young life".

Coach safety in Ireland is likely to come under scrutiny following the news that the bus was not fitted with seatbelts, says the BBC's Dublin correspondent James Helm.

People living in surrounding villages are shocked by events, he adds, and counselling is to be provided for pupils and teachers at the four schools involved.

They are the Loretto Convent School, Beaufort College, the Mercy Convent and St Patrick's Classical School.