A bus collided in a kindergarten, 2 children were killed and 6 children were injured

A city bus crashed into a kindergarten north of Montreal on Wednesday, killing two children and sending six others to hospital, authorities said. The bus driver was arrested and charged with manslaughter and reckless driving.

Police set up a wide perimeter around the building that houses the kindergarten in Laval, Quebec, and panicked parents who ran to the center were sent to a nearby elementary school. Dozens of police and ambulances lined the closed road leading to the kindergarten.

According to the witness, immediately after the accident, the driver got off the bus, tore his clothes and started shouting.

“He just screamed, no words came out of his mouth,” Hamdi Benchaabane said.

The driver, 51, had worked for the Société de transport de Laval for 10 years, had no criminal history and no criminal record, police officials and Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer said at two conferences. click separately.

“At this time, we do not know the motive for the crime,” police spokeswoman Erica Landry said. He did not say why police ruled the crash a homicide and did not release the name of the driver. Laval Police Chief Pierre Brochet said police are questioning the driver.

“There is a theory that this was an intentional act, but that has not yet been confirmed by the investigation,” Boyer said.

The kindergarten is located at the end of a dead end road. There is a bus stop at the cul-de-sac, but the driver had to turn off the road and walk a long way to get to the building.

“There were no skid marks. …He went straight to kindergarten,” said another witness, Mario Sirua.

Six children were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, Brosche said.

A senior Canadian government official said the crash was not an act of terrorism and did not pose a threat to national security. The official asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Benchaabane, who lives near the kindergarten, said that he immediately reached the scene of the accident and that he and three relatives managed to overtake the driver.

He said the police had to hit the driver to subdue the man before he was forced to the ground. The driver, he said, “was in another world.”

Benchaabane said he was able to help the child out of the nursery, and said he and others tried to save the second child before firefighters ordered them to leave because parts of the roof were in danger of falling.

“It was a nightmare, I can’t believe it,” he said of what he witnessed. “It was terrifying.”

Brosche said officers at the scene were crying.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his office was “monitoring the situation closely.”