As for the 25 people missing, “we are not yet sure,” he continued.
The bus was carrying schoolchildren from the northern province of Uthai Thani on a school trip to the Bangkok area, Paetongtarn Shinawatra said.
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“As a mother, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the injured and killed,” the leader wrote on X.
The accident was caused by a flat tire, which sent the bus into a barrier, a rescuer told a local television channel. The tanks of the bus, which ran on compressed gas, then caught fire, he continued.
Images relayed on social networks showed the powerful flames springing from the stopped bus, on a usually busy highway linking Bangkok to its industrial northern suburbs.
Firefighters put out the fire, but rescuers had to wait for the bus to cool before searching it for bodies, according to a rescuer.
Thailand has one of the world’s worst road safety records, with unsafe vehicles and poor driving contributing to the high number of deaths each year.
