Three children hospitalised as driver in car with ‘incendiary devices’ crashes into elementary school sidewalk

Children, two girls aged 7 and 11 and a boy aged 10, are now in stable condition

Representative: Police have arrested the 26-year-old driver (AP)

Three children have been hospitalised after a car drove into a sidewalk in Santa Ana, California, on Monday.

The children – two girls aged 7 and 11, and a boy aged 10 – were heading to school when the collision occurred near Taft Elementary School.

The children are in a stable condition after receiving care at the hospital.

Santa Ana police identified the driver as 26-year-old Jason Guzman of Valencia, reported ABC7. Police are yet to determine what the Valencia resident was doing in Santa Ana. Investigators said explosives were found inside Mr Guzman’s car.

Before the collision, Mr Guzman reportedly trespassed into Taft Elementary School around 8.30am. He asked to use the restroom and was later escorted off campus.

Officers discovered a “suspicious incendiary device” after the incident, and called the Orange County bomb squad to assist. They found four devices of unspecified purpose or potency in the vehicle.

“After colliding with the children, he continued, the vehicle continued rolling and hit another vehicle. I believe that vehicle was parked,” said Santa Ana Police Sgt Maria Lopez.

“Then he continued and finally came to a stop, and that’s where our officers contacted him and the vehicle.”

Police added that the suspect also had a self-inflicted wound from a knife.

Santa Ana police is working with the Santa Ana Unified School District Police Department and Orange County Sheriff’s Department in its investigation.