Fiery bus crash claims 35 lives

AT least 35 people were killed and 11 injured when a bus crashed on a highway in central China yesterday and burst into flames, it was reported.

Huge clouds of smoke billowed from the vehicle after the bus slammed into a roadside concrete barrier in Hunan province, video footage showed.

One person was seen being dragged to safety.

Some passengers limped out of the bus covered in blood, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

It quoted a survivor surnamed Huang as saying the driver told him he could not open the bus door, before escaping from the window beside his seat.

Huang saved himself by smashing another window with a fire extinguisher.

Two children were among those killed, while four of the 11 people taken to hospital were seriously injured, Xinhua said.

It said that the bus driver had been detained.

Images recorded after the fire in Yizhang county was extinguished showed the charred bus totally destroyed and sitting atop a pile of ash.

A total of 55 people were in the bus.

Officials believe that an oil leak caused by the crash may have sparked the huge blaze.

Traffic accidents are common in China, with more than 250 000 people dying each year on the roads, according to the World Health Organisation.

Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun had ordered intensive efforts to save the injured, establish the cause of the accident and take measures to prevent a recurrence, Xinhua said.

It said a team headed by Vice Public Security Minister Huang Ming would visit the scene.

Long-distance buses are a popular mode of travel between cities and competition between transport firms can be fierce.

There were no indications that the fire yesterday was deliberate.

Xinhua said rescuers were searching for clues. –