Public memorial service held for bus fire victims

TAIPEI -- A public memorial ceremony was held Monday to mourn the victims in a fatal tour bus fire that killed 26 people in Taiwan on July 19.

Christian and Buddhist religious ceremonies were carried out before the service.

Authorities from both sides of the Taiwan Straits, including the Chinese mainland-based Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Taoyuan municipal government, sent scrolls of elegiac couplets and flower baskets to mourn the victims.

Everyone on board the bus was killed when it crashed into a highway barrier and caught fire near Taoyuan Airport on Tuesday. They included 23 tourists and a tour guide from the Chinese mainland, a local driver and a local tour guide.

Families of mainland victims arrived on the island via a charter flight on Thursday to handle the aftermath of the accident.