A fire rips through a bus carrying tourists from China in Taiwan, killing all 26 on board in the worst traffic accident to hit mainland visitors since a holiday boom to the island.
The disaster, which occurred as the tourists were heading to the airport for their flight home, is the latest in a series that have called into question Taiwan’s safety record.
Media footage shows the bus, with flames shooting from the front, rammed into an expressway barrier near Taipei.
Investigators inspect a bus carrying tourists from mainland China that crashed and caught fire along an expressway on its way to the airport in Taiwan’s city of Taoyuan on July 19, 2016. (AFP PHOTO/SAM YEH)
The images show thick plumes of smoke and burned-out wreckage at the roadside.
A police spokesman says the bus caught fire before it crashed into the barrier but gave no reason.
“All the people on the bus died,” says Lin Kuan-cheng, spokesman for the National Fire Agency. “At this stage it is still not clear why no passengers escaped from the bus.”
— AFP
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