Chinese tourists killed in bus crash in Taiwan

A TAIWAN bus taking mainland Chinese tourists to the airport for their flight home caught fire and crashed, killing all on board as they struggled to escape.

A policeman and another man try to break the windows of a burning tour bus on the side of a highway in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Picture: Yan Cheng/Scoop Commune via AP

A TAIWAN bus taking mainland Chinese tourists to the airport for their flight home caught fire and crashed Tuesday, killing all 26 on board as desperate passengers struggled in vain to escape.

Footage on local media showed the bus, with flames shooting from the front, had rammed into an expressway barrier near Taipei.

The footage showed thick plumes of smoke and burnt-out wreckage at the roadside.

A police spokesman said the bus had caught fire before it crashed into the barrier but gave no reason.

“All the people on the bus died,” an official from the National Fire Agency told AFP.

“At this stage it is still not clear why no passengers escaped from the bus. Prosecutors and police are investigating the cause of the accident,” she added.

A policeman and another man try to break the windows of a burning tour bus on the side of a highway in Taoyuan, Taiwan, .(Yan Cheng/Scoop Commune via AP)

One image in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper showed two men trying to smash the bus windows with fire extinguishers as the doors of the vehicle remained shut.

A firefighter at the scene said there were no survivors still calling for help when they arrived.

The tour group of 24 people, eight men and 16 women, was from China’s northeastern city of Dalian, Taiwan’s interior ministry said.

The burning tour bus on the side of a highway in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Picture: Yan Cheng/Scoop Commune via AP

A Taiwanese driver and Taiwanese tour guide were also killed, the National Fire Agency confirmed.

The group had been on their way to Taipei’s main Taoyuan airport at the end of an eight-day trip around the island.

They were scheduled to take a 4:30pm flight back to Dalian after arriving in Taiwan last Tuesday. The accident happened shortly before 1:00pm.

Taiwan has seen a boom in tourism from mainland China since a rapprochement between the two rivals under former President Ma Ying-jeou, who came to power in 2008 and left office in May.

There are fears the industry may be hit after Beijing-sceptic Tsai Ing-wen won the presidency in January.