Six Chinese tourists die as bus crashes

The bus was probably speeding when it hit the mountain wall and then skidded off the highway to fall into the 10-meter-deep valley on the scenic New East-West Highway in Nantou County, police said.

The victims included a local tour guide and five tourists from Dalien City of Liaoning Province in northeastern China.

Rescuers rushed to the scene to pull the injured from the overturned double-decker bus and took them to hospital.

Witnesses on the same bus said that they saw white smoke coming from the braking system and the driver only poured water on the system without taking any other emergency measures.

The tourists were returning from visiting nearby scenic Mount Ali, police said. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of fractures and bruises, they said.

“We were lucky that the bus did not fall from a steeper point,” an unidentified Chinese man said from a hospital bed, adding that he heard the bus driver talk about problems with the brakes before the accident occurred.

Minister of Transportation and Communications rushed to Nantou to help coordinate the rescue mission and treatment of the injured.

Officials from other government agencies and private organizations have notified their counterparts in China and provided to help families of the tourists to take trip to Taiwan.

An estimated 5,000 Chinese tourists are presently taking advantage of the long October holiday season to travel in Taiwan.

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