King Albert II and Queen Paola, both visibly moved, joined 5,000 relatives or
friends inside the stadium. Thousands more gathered outside in warm spring
sunshine, leaving the town of Lommel almost deserted as many shops closed in
a strong display of community solidarity.
Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers paid emotional tributes to the dead,
stressing how happy their lives had been and their high spirits on a skiing
holiday that is regarded as a rite of passage for young Belgians.
Local children, many with tear stained faces, sang “vrolijke vrienden”
or “cheerful friends, a universal Belgian children’s song, that the
school trip had also sang on the coach before the accident as they headed
home with their skiing diplomas.
Evy Laermans, the wife of one of the coach’s two Swiss drivers killed in the
crash, said that her husband had been planning to quit later this month “so
he could take me to all the lovely places he drove other people to” in
Switzerland’s Alps.
The service was followed by private family burials, but most of the children
and their teacher are buried alongside each other in the Lommel cemetery.
“Parents that I have spoken to are relieved that teacher will still be
with his pupils,” said Bart Peeters, the Belgian television celebrity
who conducted the ceremony.
Two members of Schaffranek Horst, a German evangelical sect who believe the
coach crash was a “punishment by God” for Belgium’s abortion
policy, were arrested outside the stadium before they were able to disrupt
the ceremony.
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