SURAT THANI: Nine students and two teachers returning from a camping activity were injured when their van overturned in Kanchanadit district of this southern province on Friday afternoon.
The incident happened on Highway 44 on the Krabi-Surat Thani route in tambon Thung Rang, said Pol Capt Thaweewit Kaewroy, deputy investigator at the Khunthale police station in Muang district, who was alerted at 2.10pm.
Police and rescue workers arrived at the scene to find the passenger van with Bangkok licence plates overturned in the ditch dividing the road. Eleven passengers, who were teachers and students, were trapped in the wreckage.
Rescue workers retrieved nine students, who were slightly hurt, from the damaged van and sent them to Surat Thani Hospital.
The rescue team had to use a cutting tool to retrieve the two injured teachers, one of whom was the driver, from the front seats. They were also sent to the hospital.
According to a police investigation, the van was taking Matthayom Suksa 1 (Grade 7) students from Thidamaepra School in Krabi province for a camping activity in Nakhon Si Thammarat. Other students were travelling on a bus that followed the van.
Police said the van driver lost control of the vehicle, causing it to skid off the road into the ditch. The investigation is continuing.