REPRESENTATIVES FROM UCC are set to travel to Barcelona to provide assistance to students injured in yesterday’s bus crash.
Two staff members, one from its academic staff and another from its counselling staff, will make the journey to the city tomorrow.
UCC also stated that it was taking efforts to ensure that exchange students who have come to Ireland from Spain are being provided with assistance.
In a statement this afternoon the University has said that it is “conscious of the possible distress of students from Barcelona who are studying in Cork and and steps are being made to support them”.
The three students from the University who were on board the bus when it crashed are safe and well and UCC has been in touch with the other eight students on its Erasmus programme in the country.
Nationalities
This comes as officials in the country have confirmed the nationalities of those killed.
In total the incident killed 13 and injured 43 others, 28 of who were taken to hospital.
The nationalities of those killed in the crash are: seven Italians, two Germans, a Romanian, a French person, an Austrian and a student from Uzbekistan.
All of these were women aged between 19 and 25.
Earlier today Catalan interior minister Jordi Jané told reporters that three of the injured remain in a critical condition and that some of those on board had not been wearing seatbelts.
Among those injured on the bus were three female students from University College Cork.
The accident happened outside of the town of Tarragona in the north-east of the country and most of those on board were Erasmus students.
The area is situated on a motorway between Barcelona and Valencia, and it is understood that the students on board were travelling back to the University of Barcelona after attending the Las Falles festival in Valencia.
The crash happened at around 5am Irish time yesterday morning.
British student Tallulah Lyons was on board when it crashed. The 19-year-old told the BBC:
I just remember waking up and people were on the floor… I was trying to crawl out with friends – and that’s when we realised some people were trapped. It took about two hours to get everyone out.
Today Spanish newspaper El País is reporting that preliminary tests have shown that the driver was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when the crash happened.
The driver sustained chest injuries in the crash. He had been due to appear before a judge today but this has been postponed, according to AFP.
- Contains reporting from AFP
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