2 killed as blast rips through bus in Guangzhou
Online Edition
TWO people died and 32 were injured in a bus explosion in Guangzhou last night, police said.
At least eight people were critically injured and were under intensive care.
A woman who was three months pregnant was among the injured, but her condition was not critical, said sources with the No. 2 People’s Hospital in the capital city of south China’s Guangdong Province.
Of the six injured passengers who were sent to the hospital, two were in critical condition.
The other injured passengers were rushed to Xinghai Hospital and No. 421 Hospital in downtown Guangzhou.
Most victims suffered burn-related injuries, and in the severest case, burns exceeded 60 percent of the body surface.
A woman with arm injuries said she was waiting at the busstop when she heard a bang and saw flames engulfing the vehicle. “I tried to flee, but the flames spread so fast that I could not run anywhere.”
Another man surnamed Ling fled the bus but was pushed by the panic-stricken crowd behind him. He was in hospital with bruises.
“I had been on the bus for a while before the explosion. It was crowded as usual, with more than 40 people,” Ling said. “But I did not see or smell anything wrong beforehand.”
Eight patients were taken to the No. 421 hospital of the People’s Liberation Army. Xinhua reporters saw four patients receiving treatment. All were too weak to talk.
The blast went off on a bus that was in service on route 301 around 7:30pm, a spokesman for Guangzhou’s public security bureau said.
The cause of the accident is still being ascertained.
The packed bus had pulled over at Nandunhe stop on Guangzhou Avenue and its doors were still open when the blast happened.
“I heard a bang and saw the entire bus was on fire,” said a witness who gave his family name as Ye. “I was less than 20 meters from the bus, but could feel the heat.”
Ye said he saw panic-stricken passengers rushing out of the bus, some with burns. “But there were still people stranded on the bus.”
He saw volunteers, mostly people from roadside stores, trying to put out the flames with fire extinguisher, “but of no avail.”
A man surnamed Huang was standing just across the street when the explosion happened. “I heard a passenger say the blast went off just a few seconds after he got off, and there were still more than 30 people on the bus.”
A motorbike cabby was about 40 meters behind the bus. “It happened at the rush hour, and crowds of people were waiting at the busstop.”
Another cabby said he saw a bespectacled man with burns on his arm sitting on the ground and weeping. “Another man sitting close to him had lost both legs.”
The site of the explosion is a pivotal road linking the northern and southern parts of the city. After the explosion, traffic was at a standstill and large crowds of people were watching the scene.
Early this month, a 34-year-old man was suspected of setting fire on a bus packed with tourists in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province. Thirty-two people were injured.
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