Four teenagers were killed in a road accident on Saturday night, whilst returning home from a private party, in Morbihan, northwest France, reports RFI.
Ten others were in a critical condition on Sunday. Meanwhile, France's ecology minister Ségolène Royal has thrown her weight behind calls to reduce road speed limits to 90km.
The driver, aged 15, didn't have a driving licence. He was one of the four victims of the crash, which has stumped police, who are still determining what exactly happened.
According to the prosecutor of the Republic Yann Le Bris, the accident occured around 1:30 am on Sunday morning, at a hundred yards away from the local police station in Rohan, in Britanny.
The driver apparently lost control of his vehichle- a Berlingo van, said to be overloaded with passengers- which plummeted about twenty metres into a downhill stretch off the main road, Le Bris explained to French reporters.
According to local police, most of the passengers were aged between 15 and 17 and had been coming back from a "private party."
An enquiry has been opened, and a team of psychiatrists called in to treat the survivors.
For France's interior minister, this accident once again reminded the public of the danger of French roads. "Every day 9 people are killed and 100 others seriously injured," Bernard Cazeneuve said.