BOGOTA: Colombia Monday mourned the tragic loss of 32 children burned to death in a fiery bus explosion as authorities arrested the driver who had fled the scene of the inferno.

The youngsters — aged one to eight — perished Sunday after the bus burst into flames as they returned home from church services in the north of the South American country.

Another 20 children were hospitalized after the accident in the small town of Fundacion, in the department of Magdalena, according to the town’s mayor, who said 32 children were dead, including two of the driver’s own children.

“I am shattered, the entire country is in mourning for the death of these children,” said President Juan Manuel Santos who rushed to the scene to console desperate families who lost loved ones.

“We will go through everything with a fine-toothed comb. Investigations are underway,” he said.

Crews at the scene pulled little charred bodies from the blackened wreckage of the bus before transporting them to the medical examiner’s office in the regional capital of Barranquilla to be identified — a task which could take days. Magdalena police said the explosion occurred around noon, and that the fire was so intense they had problems determining the number of casualties.







Red Cross official Cesar Uruena said the injured — taken to area hospitals — suffered second and third-degree burns, and many were in critical condition.

Fundacion Mayor Luz Stella Duran declared three days of mourning.