Crash Cause Probed As Belgium Honours Dead

Prosecutors examining the circumstances surrounding a Swiss coach crash that killed 28 people, including a British boy, say they have ruled out speed as the cause.

Speaking at a news conference they also revealed they cannot say yet if technical or human error was to blame.

But no alcohol was detected in the driver's blood during a post-mortem examination and the possibility he fell ill while at the wheel of the coach has also been ruled out.

"We know the speed was below the limit in the tunnel so from this we can deduce that the speed of the bus was not at all a cause of the accident," said prosecutor general Olivier Elsig.

He added: "The death of the driver - the analysis - it did not show the existence of any excess alcohol in the body and also at this stage we don't have any elements that allow us to detail a heart problem or feeling unwell, we have no medical elements as yet."

It comes as the country holds a national day of mourning to remember the 22 children, four teachers and two drivers who died when their vehicle slammed into a concrete wall in a motorway tunnel in Switzerland late on Tuesday.

Flags were flown at half-mast and drivers of buses and trains switched off their engines in a mark of respect as a period of silence took place.

In the victims' hometowns of Heverlee and Lommel, children, parents and teachers gathered in the courtyards of their schools.

The youngsters released white balloons as some adults were seen sobbing in Heverlee.

Sebastian Bowles, 11, who has a British father and a Belgian mother, was among 46 children and four teachers from two Belgian schools who were returning home from a skiing trip in the Swiss Alps when the smash happened in Val d'Anniviers .

The vehicle is believed to have clipped a kerb before it hit the wall of a rectangular emergency stop area.

A total of 52 people, including two drivers, were on the coach and a spokesman for St Lambertus School in Heverlee, confirmed Sebastian was among the victims.

Sebastian's father moved his family from London two years ago to be near his wife's relatives in Belgium . The family previously lived in Crouch End, north London.

The bodies of the victims - mainly Belgian 11 and 12-year-olds who had spent a week on the ski slopes - were being repatriated from Sion in southern Switzerland aboard C-130 military transport planes to an air base near Brussels.

Two of the wounded children remain in hospital in a drug-induced coma, said a spokeswoman.

Eight of the 24 children injured in the crash returned home overnight, landing at Melsbroek military airport near the capital.

They then boarded buses and cars with their loved ones accompanied by a police escort.

Twenty-two of the dead were Belgian nationals while the other six fatalities were from the Netherlands. Sebastian Bowles has dual British-Belgian nationality.

Three of the injured children remained in critical condition, a Swiss hospital spokeswoman said.

Grieving Belgians held a vigil on Thursday night as classmates and neighbours turned out to pray for the dead in Lommel, where many of the victims came from.

Police said around 2,500 people joined the Catholic service.

"With this candle, I am thinking of you," a church worker said for each of the 24 names read out.

Swiss crash investigators have said they are studying three possible causes of the crash - human error, a health problem with the driver, or a technical problem with the coach.

Reports said the bus driver had tried to play a DVD shortly before the crash, suggesting a "moment of distraction" may be to blame.

But this claim has been rejected by the dead driver's employer and dismissed as speculation by Swiss police.