The French authorities announced that a bus carrying students on their way to their schools was involved in an accident on Friday morning in eastern France. As a result, two people were killed, one of them a minor and the other a young adult, according to the German News Agency.
The head of the local administration in the “An” region confirmed that the accident resulted in the death of a minor and a young adult, and the injury of 16 other people, including three who were seriously injured.
French Minister of Transport Philippe Tabarrot said in a post on the “X” platform that he went to the site of the accident, after a “serious bus accident” occurred near the small town of Lon, in a rural area located northeast of the city of Lyon.
The local administration said in a statement that “an accident involving an intercity passenger bus occurred near the town of Lune in France, and a number of casualties were recorded.” She added that emergency teams and law enforcement personnel were deployed at the scene of the accident.
The BFMTV news network reported that among the bus passengers were children on their way to middle and high schools in the area. A picture from the accident site showed the bus veering off the road and falling into a side ditch.
French Education Minister Edouard Jefray told reporters, on the sidelines of a visit to a high school in the Paris region: “It is always a difficult time when our students and children fall victim to an accident of this kind. I, the government and the entire educational community extend our condolences to the families of the victims.”
A wave of bomb threats were issued on Friday to target passenger flights across Europe for the third time this week, and the Spanish Foreign Minister said that the continent appears to be facing “aggression by all means, and a form of psychological warfare.”
False threats disrupted dozens of European flights on Thursday. This forced some planes to land at other than their scheduled destinations, and prompted the dispatch of fighter planes to escort or intercept other planes, in a major escalation after the first wave, on Tuesday.
No explosive devices were found, and all planes landed safely, according to Reuters.
The Danish police said on Friday that they were investigating threats targeting air traffic at Copenhagen Airport, but after an initial assessment they concluded that there was no danger to passengers, and the airport said that it was “operating normally.”
Czech police said they had received bomb threats on flights departing from and heading to Prague. An airport spokesman said that the threats included 4 arriving flights and 5 departing flights, but no explosive devices were found, and no flights were canceled or diverted because of them.
A source at the Italian Airports Authority said shortly thereafter that a Wizz Air flight heading from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice and landed there safely.
The French Prime Minister's Office spoke about the receipt of 4 new bomb threats to target aircraft flying over French territory, and said that all of them landed safely.
CNN Portugal reported that a bomb warning on a Ryanair flight from Rome to Lisbon led to a security operation being carried out upon landing.
Security experts said on Thursday that the threats bear the characteristics of a coordinated “attack by all means,” but it is always possible that individuals made imitated threats, or acted out of personal grievances.
No country has attributed responsibility for the threats to a specific party, but they come after a wave of acts of sabotage and attempts to target sites across Europe, ranging from German power plants and defense-related facilities in the Baltic region to supermarket refrigerators in France and elsewhere, and Leipzig Airport in Germany.
Many officials linked this campaign to Europe's support for Ukraine in its war against the Russian invasion, and accused Moscow of waging a campaign of unrest "by all means" that represents low-cost and easy-to-deniable methods, and is not expected to call for an armed response.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized, on Thursday, what she described as European "fumble" in the negotiations related to Ukraine, demanding that the bloc clarify who is speaking on its behalf.
In this letter, which she addressed to the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, Meloni expressed, according to Agence France-Presse, her dissatisfaction with several meetings held in different formats, as part of the efforts aimed at ending the Russian war in Ukraine.
“All of this suggests that we are people who completely lack credibility in managing a file that is one of the most complex files facing our countries,” she wrote.
She added, "I am certain that we all realize that making Europe appear to be moving in an uncoordinated manner only serves the interests of those who want this war to continue."
In this context, she referred to discussions that recently took place in Miami and Oslo, as well as in Brussels this week between representatives of Ukraine, the European Union, NATO and a number of European countries, including France, Germany and Britain.
It also touched on the phone call that took place last month between the Norwegian President, the Prime Minister of Finland, and the Russian President. She continued, "I want to clearly confirm that I will not accept this dynamic, and I do not intend to stand idly by regarding these matters."
Meloni also said, “Moving forward in a state of confusion, with initiatives that follow one another and overlap with each other, will not help us in our dealings with our partners, nor with those whom we need to convince to put an end to this senseless aggression.”
Meloni called on European Union leaders to decide “for once and for the last time who will sit at the negotiating table on behalf of the European Union, and what powers are granted to him,” stressing that she is not asking for anything for herself or her country.
She expressed her desire to include this issue on the agenda of an informal meeting of European Union heads of state and government to be held next week in Dublin, in preparation for taking an official decision on it during the next European summit in December.
She continued, "Without that, I fear that we will risk leaving Europe without any significant influence on the course of the negotiations."
Earlier this year, Meloni called for the appointment of a special European Union envoy for these negotiations, but her proposal did not receive much response from the EU member states.
In a letter he sent to Meloni, Costa expressed his agreement with her that “Europe needs to act with harmony, unity and determination.”
“The European Union’s participation should be organized in a way that allows it to deliver a clear and unified message, defend its interests, and support Ukraine,” he said in his letter published by his office.
The President of the European Council added that, according to the bloc’s treaties, “the interests of the European Union must be represented through its institutions.”
Costa pledged to raise this issue at the next meeting of European Union leaders.
Europe has long sought to play a more active role in negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
