French politicians, including President François Hollande, have convened for a memorial service to 43 people killed last week in one of France's deadliest road accidents, reports The Australian.
Families and friends of the victims also gathered for Tuesday's ceremony, held near the sharply curved road in the town of Petit Palais, near Bordeaux, where a bus carrying mostly senior citizens collided with an oncoming truck on Friday.
Patricia Raichini, a local mayor who lost three sisters-in-law in the accident, said a "part of our collective memory has died" with the victims. Forty-one of the 43 victims were senior citizens on a day excursion.
Promising a thorough investigation, Hollande expressed his condolences to the assembled victims' families, saying that "today your pain, which seems unending, is our pain".