Fighting back tears, bereaved families of 24 mainland tourists killed in a bus fire arrived in Taiwan via a charter flight from the northeast mainland city of Dalian on Thursday to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy. The relatives were accompanied by Taiwan tourism and immigration officials to a facility to collect DNA samples so the victims could be identified. They declined to speak to reporters before being taken to a funeral parlour in Chungli, near Taoyuan International Airport where the Tuesday’s tragedy occurred. Burning bus travelled 1.4km before crash: inquiry into deadly Taiwan tour coach blaze focuses on driver Many relatives entering the funeral parlour sobbed uncontrollably the moment they saw portraits of their loved ones placed in the mourning hall. Some collapsed on the floor. The 24 tourists from Liaoning province died shortly before their coach was due to arrive at the airport after an eight-day visit to the island. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident but security footage showed smoke coming out of the bus as it travelled about 1.4km before colliding with a road barrier and bursting into flames. Everyone aboard the bus, including the bus driver and a local tour guide, perished in what was one of Taiwan’s deadliest bus accidents. “We have asked Taiwanese authorities time and again to ensure the safety of mainland visitors after a number of traffic accidents involving mainland visitors, but still a fatal accident like this has occurred again,” said Liu Kezhi, secretary-general of the Association for Tourism Exchange across the Taiwan Strait. We have asked Taiwanese authorities time and again to ensure the safety of mainland visitors Liu Kezhi, Association for Tourism Exchange across the Taiwan Strait Liu, sent by his association to Taiwan on Wednesday to help the victims’ relatives, made the comment earlier on Thursday after he paid respects to the deceased at the funeral parlor. “We are highly dissatisfied about it,” said Liu, who headed a delegation of nine mainland officials to deal with the bus fire aftermath. Since 2008, when Taiwan allowed mainland tourists to visit, 90 mainland visitors have been killed and 390 injured in traffic accidents, according to Taiwan government statistics. Burning bus travelled 1.4km before crash: inquiry into deadly Taiwan tour coach blaze focuses on driver Meanwhile, investigators said on Thursday that an electrical short circuit that might set the bus on fire. “We have found that a fuse box underneath the driver’s seat had melted,” one investigator said, adding this could have been caused by a power overloaded. The investigator added that the driver may have been overcome by smoke that began to fill the bus as soon as the fire started.