Incident

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Incident

China bus kills 25 in snow

29 January 2008 08:44 (UTC +04:00)

The bus, carrying 38 people, plunged into a valley in the impoverished province of Guizhou, Xinhua news agency said.
"Initial investigation blamed the tragedy on the unusual snowy weather in the region over the past days," Xinhua news agency said.
"The road was covered with a thick layer of ice and the temperature was about minus 2 degrees Celsius, a sharp contrast to the usual warm winter climate."
Thirteen people were injured, two seriously, Xinhua said. The bus, with a maximum capacity of 35, had left Chongqing municipality and was bound for the southern boomtown of Shenzhen.
Icy temperatures, snow and sleet blanketing much of central, eastern and southern China for weeks have crippled many thousands of trucks and trains loaded with coal, food and passengers in the most severe winter weather seen there in at least 50 years.
Guizhou has been suffering from widespread blackouts with hundreds of kilometres of iced power lines paralysed.
Guangdong province, which oversees Shenzhen, has seen more than half a million people -- mostly migrant workers returning home for the Chinese New Year -- stranded by severed train and highway services. /APA/