Coalition airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia hit a bus carrying children in rebel-held northern Yemen on Thursday, killing and wounding dozens.

The bus had been travelling through a busy market in Dahyan district, northern Saada, at the time of the raid. The Houthi rebels' health ministry said 43 people died, including 29 children.

According to Save the Children, they were heading back from a picnic when the driver stopped to get a drink.

"Scores killed, even more injured, most under the age of 10," Johannes Bruwer, head of delegation for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen, stated in a Twitter post.

The ICRC said one of the hospitals it supports was treating the wounded. In a video recorded in the immediate aftermath of the attack, one boy covered in dirt trying to stand up was seemingly unable to move.

"My leg won't get up," he told the man behind the camera.