Students from Hong Kong and the mainland die in US car crash

Two students in Washington state - one from Hong Kong and the other from the mainland - were killed and a third Chinese student injured in a car accident at the beginning of their Christmas holidays.

Cheung Chi-kan, a 21-year-old Hong Kong resident studying at Peninsula College, Port Angeles, is suspected by US police to have been speeding when he lost control of his car and rammed into a vehicle in the opposite lane on a winding road in the city. He died at the scene with 20-year-old female student Duo Li, who was not wearing a seat belt.

A third student from the college, Ng P. Ho, suffered rib and chest injuries and was discharged from hospital after treatment. It is not known where Ng is from.

The Peninsula Daily News, based in Port Angeles, reported that ice on the road was not the reason for the accident. 'We believe they were simply going too fast for that curve,' Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Krista Hedstrom told the newspaper.

The accident happened just after 10pm on Saturday when Cheung was heading west in his 1988 Ford Escort and lost control on a bend. The car spun across the centre line and hit a car travelling in the opposite direction. A local couple who were travelling in that vehicle were discharged after hospital treatment.

The Chinese consulate in Seattle contacted the families of the victims and said it would help them if they wanted the bodies to be returned home.