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Breaking News

At Least Six Dead in Bus Crash in Texas

Aired June 24, 2002 - 11:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: But now we have some other news that you have been seeing I am sure there during coverage. We were showing pictures that we are getting from Dallas from our affiliate in Dallas, WFAA. The story is not in Dallas. It's actually just outside of Terrell, Texas. We understand it's about 20 miles or so east of Dallas on Interstate 20.

There you see a horrific scene this morning. We understand that a bus -- I believe they say, the reports that I have seen say it's a Greyhound bus carrying a number of teens who were on their way to one- week camp at Louisiana Tech University, for whatever reason crashed into that pillar under that overpass there on the highway. And you can see there the bus totally off the road right now. With all that debris around the pillar, it appears as though the bus left the road at some point to hit that pillar.

No information on exactly how and what happened there just yet. We are still working on that.

We understand that there were some nearly 50 members of a group from the Metro Church of Garland, Texas on their way to this one-week camp at Louisiana Tech. And the sad news we have so far is that the Associated Press is reporting six are dead at this point. We know that some eight different helicopters were sent in to actually try to rescue as many people and take them directly away to medical assistance as soon as possible.

There you are getting a live picture from our affiliate, WFAA. I am not sure exactly whose helicopter that is there. This is -- it's a Life Flight helicopter. So that is a helicopter that is there to help whisk away anyone who may be ambulatory over to hospitals someplace.

We understand now that this is in Kaufman, County. And again, all we know at this particular point is that these eight different medical helicopters that are working the scene are trying to rescue as many as they can. And at this point now, we know that -- or at least the Associated Press is reporting there are six dead from this bus.

Now, we understand that most of these people on this bus were teens. I can't imagine that they would be by themselves, so we don't know the makeup of the entire group there.

We also are getting reports that parents or those of the family that may have some connection to whomever may be on this bus are being asked to contact the church, the Metro Church of Garland for any information on this horrific scene, as we said, just outside of Dallas near Terrell, Texas this morning on Interstate 20.

We'll keep our eye on this story, as we take a break, so please stay with us.

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