High School Bus Crashes in Indonesia; at Least 54 Die

JAKARTA, Indonesia — At least 54 people, most of them high school girls, were killed when their bus burst into flames after colliding head-on with a truck and then being hit by a van in Indonesia's East Java province, police officials said today.

The students, from Yogyakarta, had been to the resort island of Bali and were headed home when the accident occurred about 515 miles east of Jakarta, the capital, late Wednesday, said Lt. Agus of the Police Department in Situbondo. Like many Indonesians, he uses only one name.

Police initially said 52 dead people had been pulled from the wreckage, but that number was raised to 54 by the hospital where the corpses were taken.

"There were 51 students, two teachers and one tour leader killed," said Nanang, a doctor.

The bus passengers "were burned to death as a result of the crash," Situbondo Police Chief Tugas Dwi Apriyanto said.

He said an unknown number of injured were taken to nearby hospitals. The driver of the bus and his assistant survived.