Eleven ROK tourists in hospital after bus accident

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-26 22:33

CHANGCHUN -- Eleven tourists from the Republic of Korea (ROK) injured when a bus overturned in northeast China were still in hospital on Friday, doctors said.

The other 22 ROK nationals in the 34-member tour group are expected to fly back home on Saturday, said a spokesman with the government of Ji'an City, Jilin Province.

A 33-year-old man from the group, Lim Kun-Ho, and a Chinese tour guide, Huang Longxue, died when their bus overturned near Ji'an on Thursday morning.

The bus, which is owned by a travel agency in neighboring Liaoning Province, was carrying 37 people when the accident happened, made up of the 34-member tour group, two Chinese tour guides and a driver.

Police and rescuers said almost all the survivors were injured, and the the bus was seriously damaged, with its roof was gone and all windows smashed.

An initial investigation found that the cause of the accident was speeding downhill.

Currently, 10 tourists are being treated at different hospitals in Tonghua City, which administers Ji'an, and the other one is in hospital in the Jilin provincial capital of Changchun.

"We specially asked a senior doctor who can speak Korean to treat the injured tourists. Interpreters from a local travel agency also came to take care of them voluntarily," said Jiao Dongmei, a doctor at the Tonghua People's Hospital.

None of the injured tourists has life-threatening injuries, doctors said.