At least 27 people were missing feared dead Sunday when a passenger bus fell off a mountainous road and into a river in south-west China, a local official and state media said. The accident occurred in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture, a region largely populated by ethnic Tibetans and other minorities, a Danba county government official who declined to be named told AFP.
The cause of the Sunday morning accident, in which 11 people were also injured, is under investigation, she said. Xinhua news agency earlier reported that 23 people were killed in the accident before updating the report to 11 injured and 27 missing.
"Due to the very deep waters where the bus fell in, there was no possibility of the survival of those missing," Xinhua said. The official refused to comment on the chances of finding survivors, only saying that a search was ongoing.
The bus was travelling from Aba's Maerkang county to the provincial capital of Chengdu when the accident occurred, Xinhua said. It was forced to take a detour on a secondary road due to repairs on the main road, it said. China's roads are among the most dangerous in the world, with traffic laws widely flouted.
Almost 70,000 people died in road accidents in 2009, or around 190 fatalities per day, according to police statistics.
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