Tag Archives: bus accident

China says 32 nationals killed when bus falls off bridge in North Korea

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Thirty-two Chinese tourists and four North Koreans died when a bus crashed off a bridge in North Korea, China’s foreign ministry said on Monday, with two Chinese nationals in critical condition.

Chinese tourists make up about 80 percent of all foreign visitors to North Korea, says a South Korean think-tank, the Korea Maritime Institute, which estimates that tourism generates revenue of about $44 million each year for the isolated country.

Chinese diplomats visited the scene of Sunday’s crash in North Hwanghae province, the foreign ministry said.

State television’s main Chinese-language news channel showed images of a crashed blue bus with its wheels in the air, in footage taken in pouring rain in the dark.

It also showed at least one person being treated in hospital.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters he could not give additional details of the accident as an investigation was under way.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had asked the Foreign Ministry and Chinese embassy to take “all necessary means” to handle the accident, the ministry said in a later statement.

In a separate statement, China’s health ministry said it was sending a team of medical experts, along with equipment and drugs, to North Korea, to help treat survivors.

The North Hwanghae province that borders South Korea is home to Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital thronged by tourists.

North Korea is a popular, if offbeat, tourist destination for Chinese, especially those from the country’s northeast.

China said more than 237,000 Chinese visited in 2012, but stopped publishing the figures in 2013.

China is North Korea’s most important economic and diplomatic backer, despite Beijing’s anger at Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear and missile tests and support for strong United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

North and South Korea are in the final stages of preparations for a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-In at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Friday.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Bus carrying students crashes in Alabama, killing at least one

Emergency service vehicles gather on Interstate 10 at the scene of a bus crash in Baldwin County, Alabama, U.S., March 13, 2018 in this still image obtained from social media video. Jesus Tejeda via REUTERS

(Reuters) – A bus carrying dozens of Texas high school students on a trip veered across the median separating two lanes of an interstate highway in Alabama and plunged into a ravine, killing at least one person and injuring several others, authorities said.

The bus was taking about 45 passengers back home to Houston from Florida when it plunged into a 50-foot (15-meter) ravine at about 5:30 a.m. CDT (6.30 a.m ET), Baldwin County, Alabama, Sheriff Hoss Mack told reporters at the scene.

“For whatever reason, the charter bus got into the median and ended up going into a ravine,” Mack said near the scene of the accident on Interstate 10 between Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida.

“We have one confirmed fatality,” he said.

The injured passengers, including one listed in critical condition and five in serious condition, were taken by helicopter or ambulance to 10 hospitals in Alabama and Florida, Mack said.

The students were from Channelview High School in the Houston area, local media reported. School officials could not be reached for immediate comment.

Rescue workers attend to the scene of a bus crash in Baldwin County, Alabama, U.S., March 13, 2018 in this still image obtained from social media video. Jesus Tejeda via REUTERS

Rescue workers attend to the scene of a bus crash in Baldwin County, Alabama, U.S., March 13, 2018 in this still image obtained from social media video. Jesus Tejeda via REUTERS

Dozens of people posted messages of grief and sympathy on the school’s Facebook page, saying they were praying for the students.

Officials said the bus was one of two Houston-bound charters traveling together and that no other vehicles were involved in the pre-dawn crash.

They said the accident’s cause would be investigated by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

The National Transportation Safety Board also said it was sending a team of six investigators to look into the crash.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jonathan Oatis)