A train has crashed into a school van at a level-crossing in the Belgian town of Buggenhout, killing four people including two special needs pupils.

The driver and an adult accompanying the pupils also died in the crash on Tuesday, while two other students were badly injured.

Images in Belgian media showed a white minivan lying on its side near the track, its front badly crumpled.

Transport Minister Jean-Luc Crucke said security camera footage showed the crossing’s safety barriers had come down.

“What could have been a beautiful spring morning suddenly turned into a pitch-black day,” East Flanders Provincial Deputy Kurt Moens told news outlet VRT NWS.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X: “Today, Europe grieves with Belgium.”

The accident occurred near Buggenhout station, about 23 kilometres north of Brussels.

The van was carrying seven pupils with special needs to their school, and a chaperone, Belgian federal police spokesperson An Berger said.

RTL quoted a spokesperson for the state railway infrastructure operator, Infrabel, saying the train driver had applied the emergency brakes but “the shock was extremely violent.”

Belgium, where a dense railway network criss-crosses towns and villages, has a history of accidents at level-crossings.

Since 2021, 36 people have died in 168 such accidents, according to Infrabel’s website.