15 on board Yangtze plunge bus
Print Edition
Fifteen people were confirmed to have been on a bus that plunged into the Yangtze River in southwest China’s Chongqing City on Sunday, local authorities said yesterday.
The bus veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided with an oncoming private car before breaking through road fencing and flying off a bridge in Wanzhou District at 10:08am on Sunday.
An initial police investigation found that 15 people, including the bus driver, were on the bus at the time of the accident, rescue headquarters said.
Two bodies have been retrieved from the river so far, but their identities are not yet known. Medical staff have taken DNA samples from families of the missing people for identity verification, according to rescue headquarters.
Rescue work is still ongoing. More than 1,000 rescuers with 48 rescue boats have arrived to carry out salvage operations. The Ministry of Transport dispatched five professional deep divers to Chongqing on Sunday night and their equipment was expected to arrive yesterday evening.
Through sonar technology, the bus was found 71 meters underwater and 28 meters away from the bridge where the accident occurred.
A police officer on duty on Sunday said the spot where the bus sank happened to be the deepest area in the river. The complex water situation and deep-running water in the river have complicated the rescue efforts.
Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.
According to a preliminary investigation, the bus crossed over the line marking the center of the bridge and crashed into the car that was driving normally on the other side.
The bridge, named the Second Yangtze River Bridge of Wanzhou, is a two-way, four-lane overpass with an overall width of 20 meters. The fence breach was in the middle of the bridge.
The bus was a No. 22 public transport vehicle running from Jiangnan New District of Wanzhou to Beibin Road.
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