29 injured in Guangxi bus crash
Twenty-nine tourists from Hong Kong were injured in a bus crash in Guangxi yesterday when the coach they were travelling in tipped on its side after swerving to avoid an oncoming petrol tanker.
More than 40 Hong Kong tourists, on a four-day sightseeing tour of the province, were on the bus when the accident happened about 7am, an hour's drive out of Hezhou.
The bus hit a tree before it toppled over. The condition of the tanker driver is not known.
Police said 26 of the injured, 16 females and 10 males aged between three and 65, would be taken to the North District and Tuen Mun hospitals.
Three of the passengers were seriously injured and were last night in hospital in Guangxi.
The injured tourists who are capable of travelling are being sent back to Hong Kong on another bus organised by the tour operator, with ambulances last night waiting at Lok Ma Chau checkpoint.
The Immigration Department has set up a hotline for concerned friends and relatives. The number is 2829 3010.
An anxious man, surnamed Leung, who was waiting for his wife at the North District Hospital, said she called him about 8am.
'She told me that she just had a traffic accident. Luckily, she was only slightly injured,' he said.
Mr Leung said his wife told him that all passengers on board the coach were able to climb out.
'My wife told me that the tanker which was heading towards the coach, fell over the cliff as it swerved to the other side of the road,' Mr Leung said.
Last month, 28 tourists from Hong Kong were injured when their bus plunged off a three-lane highway in Shandong province.
