Heartbreak for families

A minivan carrying 15 children to kindergarten plunged into a roadside pond in a rural area of eastern China yesterday, killing 11 children, state media and an official said.

Three children died at the scene of the accident in Guixi city, in Jiangxi province, and another eight died later in hospital, said an official from the propaganda office of the city’s Communist Party committee.

Four children survived, said the official, who like many Chinese bureaucrats gave only his surname, Jiang.