Paris  - The driver of a schoolbus that was rammed by a regional train on Monday, causing the deaths of seven schoolchildren, was on Wednesday placed under judicial investigation for manslaughter and arrested, French radio reported.

The driver is suspected of having ignored a blinking red light at a railway crossing and trying to make it across the tracks as the barriers were descending.

The train rammed into the rear of the bus at a speed of 90 kilometres per hour, killing seven students between the ages of 12 and 14 and injuring another 25 people, three of them seriously.

The accident took place near the town of Allinges, in the south- eastern French region of Upper Savoy.

The 49-year-old driver denies the charges. However, a woman in a car just behind the bus told a French newspaper that the bus had entered the railway crossing while the red warning lights were blinking. (dpa)