Asia-Pacific News
At least 15 children die in school bus crash
Dec 13, 2011, 4:55 GMT
Beijing - At least 15 young children died and eight others were injured after a school bus crashed into a water-filled ditch in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, the government said on Tuesday.
The bus veered off the narrow mud road in Jiangsu's Fengxian county as it swerved to avoid a pedicab late Monday, Zhang Bin, deputy head of the county government, told state media.
Three children died in hospital early Tuesday and eight others were still receiving emergency treatment, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang as saying.
The bus was run by a local primary school and was carrying 29 children when it overturned around 6 pm (1000 GMT) on Monday. It was not overloaded, reports said.
Many of the children were trapped at the bottom of the overturned vehicle and drowned as water flooded in from the stream in the ditch, Zhang said.
Police had detained the bus driver for questioning, Zhang was quoted as saying.
The accident follows a recent safety drive for school buses after 19 children died last month when an overloaded bus crashed head-on with a truck in the north-western province of Gansu.
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