Man dies, 17 hurt as landslide topples bus
ONE man was killed and 17 people were injured yesterday when a landslide in Tsuen Wan swept a public light bus off a narrow section of Castle Peak Road and left it overturned on a beach.
The incident occurred at 11.46 am at Tsing Lung Tau - less than five hours after the Royal Observatory lowered a territory-wide landslide warning.
A six metre by 15 metre section of mud and rock fell from a hillside onto both lanes of the road, hitting the bus from the right side and turning it over. The bus fell several metres down an embankment.
The landslide was one of three to affect Castle Peak Road yesterday.
The only other reported slide to hit the territory after Saturday's heavy rains occurred at Man Kam To, near the Chinese border. No injuries were reported.
Tommy Lau King-tong, brother of one of the injured public light bus passengers, was quick to lay blame on the Government, adding more fuel to growing public concern over the high number of slope disasters this rainy season.
The deadly slide, next to the high-priced Grand Bay Villas, was the second to hit the area in two weeks. Late last month two people were injured in a landslip metres away from yesterday's accident.
''My brother almost died and one guy did,'' Mr Lau said in the Tuen Mun Hospital waiting room, as his brother Cliff Lau King-fu, 32, was being checked by doctors.
''And there have been many others this year. What more does the Government need to see that something has to be done?'' Government engineers could not be reached for comment last night but police said the bus accident was simply a case of ''being in the wrong place at the wrong time''.
The accident was reported by a motorist travelling in front of the bus, who told police the vehicle ''just disappeared'' from the road.
On the bus were 18 people, aged from seven to 51 - one male driver, 10 male passengers and seven female passengers.
A male passenger, Siu Cho-lin, 51, was killed after he was buried by the mud that filled the front section of the bus.
The others were treated and released from hospital suffering from minor injuries.
The Royal Observatory recorded 20.6 millimetres of rain yesterday, with 33.1 mm recorded on Saturday. About 125 mm has been recorded since the beginning of the month, which is ''nothing unusual'' for this time of year. July's rainfall beat all previous records.
A landslide warning, issued at 7 pm on Saturday, was lowered at 7 am yesterday as forecasters predicted that the worst was over.
Six reports of flooding were recorded, with two in the northern New Territories and four in Kowloon. No injuries were reported.
Typhoon Doug was being blamed for much of the weekend's heavy rains.
At 8 pm last night, the Royal Observatory said the centre of the typhoon was 240 kilometres southeast of Taipei, moving north-northwest at 22 km/h, and was likely to be closest to Taiwan early this morning.
High winds were not expected to seriously affect Hong Kong.
Many New Territories villagers began returning to their homes yesterday, where crops were destroyed and displaced residents were forced to move to temporary shelters set up by the City and New Territories Administration.
Just one temporary shelter remained open last night, housing 17 Fanling residents at the Cheung Wah Community Hall.
At the height of the rains, about 80 people were being housed in more than 25 temporary shelters.
Cathay Pacific, meanwhile, was forced to transfer 70 passengers from its final flight to Taipei last night to earlier flights in anticipation of Typhoon Doug disrupting schedules. However, all 13 flights were able to go ahead on schedule.