Thirteen dead, 41 injured in north China road accident

Thirteen people were killed while 41 others were injured in a road accident in north China's Shanxi Province, said local authorities on Saturday.

The accident happened at 3:50 p.m. Friday, when a bus with 54 on board from Hebei Province to Taiyuan, Shanxi's capital, plunged off 50 meters into a valley while it wound through a mountainous road in Yangquan city. The city is about one and a half hours' drive from the destination, said Zhang Yonghong, a traffic policeman from Yangquan.

Ten passengers were killed on the spot, while three others died on the way to hospital.

Another 41 people, including the driver, were injured and receiving medical treatment. Three of them were described as "in critical condition" and six others were seriously wounded, according to an official surnamed Shi from the publicity department of Yangquan.

The bus from a tourism agency was rented by the Jinwanxia healthcare products company of Taiyuan, which was taking the company's customers to Hebei for travelling, a way by the company to reward users of its products.

Cause of the accident is under investigation, but Zhang said that it was drizzling when the tragedy happened and the road was slippery.

Source: Xinhua