Putin offers condolences over children's deaths in Colombia bus crash
MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended his condolences to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon over a bus fire which killed children.
"Please accept my deep condolences over the tragic accident in the Magdalena Department which claimed dozens of lives of children. I am asking you to pass my words of sincere sympathy and support for the victims' families and also wish swift recovery to all those injured," Putin said in a telegram posted on the Kremlin's website.
At least 30 people have been killed by fire on a bus in north Colombia, mostly children; 18 passengers managed to escape, the BBC said.
According to police, the bus was carrying children, many of them less than 14 years of age, from a church event in the town of Fundacion on the Caribbean coast, 750 kilometers from the country's capital, Bogota. The causes of the fire are being investigated.
The bus which was carrying the children had been used earlier to smuggle gasoline, according to the local press.
