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.
The victims’ bodies were so badly burned that officials say it is not yet possible to confirm the death toll, with DNA testing needed to identify remains.
Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said 21 people escaped from the blaze but 23 are still unaccounted for and likely to be dead.
Rescue workers put up screens around the wreckage to shield firefighters and investigators as they recovered bodies from the blackened shell of the bus.
Police are hunting the coach driver after he fled the scene, acting national police chief Kitrat Phanphet told reporters.
Some of the children who survived suffered horrific burns to their faces, mouths and eyes, doctors treating them told local media.
The bus was one of three carrying children from Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam school in the northern province of Uthai Thani on a field trip to a science museum in northern Bangkok.
