A school minibus crashed into a truck in France on Thursday, killing at least six children, police said, a day after another road accident involving a school bus left two youngsters dead.

The head-on smash with a lorry carrying rubble came around 7:15 am near Rochefort in the western Charente-Maritime region.

The school bus was carrying about 17 people, and three children suffered minor injuries in the accident, a police source said.

On Wednesday two children, aged 12 and 15, died when a school bus veered off a road in snowy conditions near the Swiss border in eastern France.

The school bus was carrying 32 children on its daily trip to the village school in Montbenoit when it "left the road", a police source in that case said.