Thai authorities began Thursday the funerals for 20 schoolchildren and three teachers who died due to the explosion of a combustible gas bus that caught fire on a Bangkok highway. Relatives participated in the funeral rites,

A bus carrying young students with their teachers caught fire in suburban Bangkok on Tuesday and more than 20 of those on board were feared dead, officials and rescuers said.

The bodies of 20 children and three teachers have been recovered after a bus transporting school pupils crashed and caught fire outside Bangkok. The bus was returning to the Thai capital after a school trip to the north of the country.