950809

Bus accident

kills 20

in China

BEIJING: At least 20 people were killed, including two French tourists, and 24 injured when a bus plunged into a ravine and exploded in flames in a scenic valley in southwestern China, officials said on Wednesday.

The bus, carrying Chinese and foreign tourists, was on its way to the Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve for pandas in Sichuan province on Monday when it plunged into a 200-metre (655-ft) deep valley in Maowen county, officials said by telephone from the provincial capital Chengdu.

Officials said two Frenchmen were killed on the spot. The final death toll was not yet clear, they added.

An official of the provincial information department said 24 people were injured, including two other French nationals, both men aged 22, and a 47-year-old Italian woman. He said some were seriously hurt as a result of the impact and because the petrol tank exploded, engulfing the bus in flames.

All the injured were being treated in the People's Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital.

One of the injured French tourists sustained burns over 80 percent of his body, while the other had burns over 40 percent of his body, Xinhua news agency said. Both men were listed in critical condition.

"All senior doctors are in the emergency room," an official of the hospital said by telephone. "This is a rather serious accident."

The Italian woman suffered second-degree burns to all four limbs and had a bone fracture, Xinhua said, adding that her condition was improving.

"We don't yet know the reason for the accident," said the information department official. "It seems that the driver may have been killed so we have to wait until the injured are well enough to be interviewed to find out what happened."

An investigation was under way.

A French consular official and a doctor had travelled to Chengdu, the embassy said.-Reuter