Bus carrying 40 primary schoolchildren plunges down slope in French Alps injuring 18

A bus carrying 40 primary school students, who were returning from a trip to the French Alps, has plunged down a wooded slope into a creek on Saturday, leaving the driver and his partner hospitalised with serious injuries, authorities reported.

Eighteen children and one other adult were treated for minor injuries, according to Fabien Mulyk, mayor of the town of Corps, where the incident happened. 

'They are all doing well,' he told The Associated Press.

The regional prosecutor has opened an investigation. 

The mayor said the 'most probable scenario' is that the driver had some kind of medical problem while behind the wheel.

A bus carrying 40 primary school students, who were returning from a trip to the French Alps, has plunged down a wooded slope into a creek on Saturday, near the town of Corps

Eighteen children and one other adult were treated for minor injuries following the crash

Local officials told French media that weather conditions were clear when the bus left the road, and there was no ice or snow on the section where the bus vehicle crashed. 

They said all the children were wearing seat belts.

A photograph from the town published online showed the bus leaning off the slope of a ravine in a tangle of dried branches with its windshield shattered.

French media said the children were returning from a summer camp in the Hautes-Alpes, The Mirror reports.

They were heading towards Grenoble station, in order to then return to their home town of Sceaux, in Hauts-de-Seine.