Death toll in explosion on coach rises to 5
Print Edition
The death toll from an explosion on a coach in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province has risen to five, the local government said yesterday.
The blast occurred at around 6:40pm on Sunday on a long-distance bus with 47 on board as it was about to reach a bus station in Pucheng County.
Three men and two women died. Among the 24 injured, between the ages of three and 44, two remain in a critical condition, said Wang Xiangmin, a doctor at Pucheng Hospital.
“I did not feel anything abnormal before the blast,” said a passenger surnamed Wang. “The bus was waiting to pass a crossroads when the explosion happened. The huge bang made me faint instantly.”
Wang and her friend were sitting at the back of the coach. She opened her eyes to see chaos inside the vehicle. She woke her friend and they jumped off the bus. Wang suffered injuries to her ears.
Another passenger, surnamed Geng, was sitting in the middle of the last row of seats. He said he also did not notice any abnormal signs before the explosion.
He said he woke suddenly to see white smoke about a meter in front of him, and instantly felt scorching on his legs. He managed to climb out of a shattered window. Geng suffered an eye injury.
The bus, owned by a passenger transport company, left a bus station in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi, at 4:50pm on Sunday, with 45 passengers and two crew members, police investigating the incident said.
The bus stopped for five minutes at a service station in Fuping County on the way, but no passengers boarded or left the bus during the trip, the police in Pucheng County said.
“Any passenger carrying explosives would have boarded the bus inside the station,” said another injured passenger.
He claimed staff conducted security checks on luggage and scanned tickets, but he personally did not undergo any checks when entering the station.
According to Wang, the Pucheng Hospital doctor, colleagues had removed cotton-like material and pieces of metal debris from one passenger who was badly hurt in the explosion.
The cause of the blast is still under investigation.
Experts from the Ministry of Public Security and Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department have arrived at the scene to help with ongoing inquiries.
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