[WATCH] Sydney: two eight-year-old boys killed when car crashed into classroom

Two eight-year-old boys have died and another three girls are in hospital, after a Toyota crashed into a classroom in the Sydney suburb of Greenacre.

According to a police statement, one girl, nine, was in a serious condition and the other two, both aged eight, were stable.

The car, a Toyota Kluger, hit the building at Banksia Road primary school in Greenacre at about 9:45am on Tuesday. The female driver, 52, was charged later in the afternoon with two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death, said police.

The driver was not injured and according to police, the incident was not deliberate.

“Obviously this is a very, very tragic event,” NSW police acting assistant commissioner Stuart Smith said. Crash investigators and detectives from Bankstown local area command were investigating the circumstances that led to the accident.

Paramedics arrived to “a scene of carnage” with “distressed and overwhelmed children and teachers”.

It was “pandemonium” and “distressing”, NSW ambulance superintendent Stephanie Radnidge said. “They were crying, they were distressed, some were asking for their parents.”

Radnidge said that the boys who died had suffered multiple traumas and were unconscious when they were taken to hospital.

There were 24 children in the classroom when the crash happened, police said. Seventeen children and a female teacher were assessed on the grounds by paramedics. Two chaplains were brought in to support paramedics and the victims.

“[Paramedics] are trained the deal with such tragedies, and to respond in an appropriate manner is so that the pre hospital care is administered,” Radnidge said.

“It is very, very hard because we are parents ourselves, we are human beings. But we are highly trained and the best care was delivered this morning to those injured at this site.”

It’s believed the car was within the school grounds when the incident happened. Police said the driver was a local woman, but it was too early to say whether she had any relationship with the school.

“We’re not looking at this as an intentional act. It is a crash investigation,” Smith said.

Superintendent Adam Dewbury of NSW Fire and Rescue said teachers and members of the public had run into the classroom to help lift the vehicle after the crash. The situation was “very complex, very traumatic” for everyone involved, he said.

Online there was an outpouring of grief from parents. “A whole community is mourning, we are all shocked, we are all in tears,” one woman wrote on Facebook.

“These sweet children woke up today, happy to go to school and be with their friends, mothers and fathers dressed them, giving them their last goodbye kiss not knowing about a tragedy that was coming their way.”

Police said the children were taken from the classroom after the accident to a separate location where the five who were seriously injured were identified and rushed to hospital. There were a number of other minor injuries.

The NSW education minister, Rob Stokes, said the grief was beyond comprehension and the government’s first priority would be to support students and families.

“This will not be a quick process and we will work together with the school community to provide whatever assistance we can,” he said.