Seven teenagers were killed today when a bus taking them to watch the Paralympics in Athens crashed into a truck.
The vehicles collided on a main road connecting southern and northern Greece near the seaside town of Aghios Constantinos, 108 miles north of Athens.
"Seven youngsters are dead. There are a number of seriously injured," said local police chief Antonis Galanos. He said the bus was carrying 37 high school students, four teachers and a driver from Farkadona, a small town 205 miles north of the capital.
"The situation is tragic. The crash with the truck overturned the bus. Exactly how it happened we do not know," said deputy Greek fire chief Andreas Kois.
According to the principle of Farkadona high school, Petros Hahopoulos, three buses filled with students left the town at dawn to drive south to Athens so the students could watch some Paralympics events at the capital's main Olympic sports complex.
The 11 day Paralympics end tomorrow. It was the second crash involving high school students in the past 18 months. In April 2003, 21 students were killed when a bus crashed into a truck on the main north-south road.