A car drove into a group of schoolchildren cycling to a school camp in the southern Netherlands on Thursday, killing two children and an adult supervisor and seriously injuring four other children, Dutch police said.
The crash occurred around 12:30 p.m. near the village of Vogelwaarde in Zeeland province, close to the Belgian border, where a passenger car collided with a group of 14 children and two adult supervisors riding bicycles as part of a school camping trip.
Four children were taken to hospital with serious injuries. Police said one person was taken into custody, but said it was too early to confirm whether that person was the driver involved or to establish the cause of the crash. An investigation is under way.
Authorities said the group — 14 children riding with two adult supervisors — was en route to a school camp when the car struck them. The ages of the victims were not immediately released.
Group cycling trips are a fixture of Dutch school life, and serious collisions involving school groups are rare in a country where cycling infrastructure is among the most extensive in the world and most roads carry dedicated bike lanes. The N290 regional road, which runs through the area, is among the routes where cyclists and vehicle traffic intersect at rural crossings.
The crash drew expressions of sympathy from across the country as news spread Thursday afternoon, with national politicians sending condolences to the families and the village.
Police appealed for witnesses and said further details about the victims and the circumstances of the collision would be released once families had been informed.