26 killed when Taiwan tour bus with Chinese Tourists caught fire

Share:

TAIPEI — A Taiwan tour bus carrying tourists from China crashed into a highway railing en route to the airport on Tuesday and burst into flames, killing all 26 on board, authorities said Tuesday.

The bus was carrying 24 tourists on an eight-day tour organized by a travel agency in China’s northeastern province of Liaoning, authorities said in a statement. The driver and the tour guide, both from Taiwan, were also killed.

“The fire moved very fast. All 26 died,” Lu Jui-yao, an official with the National Highway Police Bureau, told reporters.

A handout photo released by the Taoyuan City Fire Department shows the bus. TAOYUAN FIRE DEPARTMENT / HO / EPA

Taiwan is a popular destination for mainland tourists, who provide a major source of tourism revenue for the island. Traffic accidents in Taiwan involving Chinese tourists are not uncommon.

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and for years travel between the two sides was restricted, but tourist exchanges have deepened over the past two decades, with many Chinese visiting the democratically ruled island for the first time.

The cause of the fire was unclear. Taiwan authorities were investigating.

Taiwan’s cabinet spokesman, Tung Chen-yuan, said government officials dealing with tourism and China affairs had reached out to their mainland counterparts and that they would help arrange for relatives of the victims to come to Taiwan.

The passengers were on their way to Taoyuan, the island’s main airport just south of the capital Taipei, for their flight back to China when the accident happened.

 

CNBC

Share:

Comments

2 responses to “26 killed when Taiwan tour bus with Chinese Tourists caught fire”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Either there was a hell of a lot of booze in the luggage …
    Or one must ask how they are making busses over there.
    (wonder if the railings are electrified Trumpie-Bumpers to handle immigrants … hmmm)

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      “Yellow journalism”, or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers..dear

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *