Six die after School Bus Full of Children Plunges into River

According to a report, six people, most of them children, are dead after a school bus plunged into a river in Syria Thursday, according to the Syria Civil Defence group.

The bus was carrying dozens of children when it veered off the road near the city of Darkush, west of Idlib, and fell into the river, according to the White Helmets, a local civil defense organization. Rescue teams were searching the river and the surrounding cliffs for survivors.

The bus crash is the latest tragedy to affect an area already devastated by Syria’s prolonged civil war and a severe earthquake last year. The region is home to around 5.1 million people, many of whom are internally displaced and reliant on humanitarian aid.

Images from the scene showed a steep crag overlooking the riverbed, with searchers scrambling over boulders to find survivors, according to the Associated Press. The bus was reported to have overturned multiple times before coming to a halt in the river, making the rescue operation more challenging.

The area has been deeply affected by Syria’s ongoing civil war, now in its 14th year. Most residents in the opposition-held northwest have been displaced multiple times, relying on aid to survive. The region was also hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake last year, further complicating the humanitarian situation.