2010-07-06 07:19

Wreckage of a bus that caught fire in a tunnel in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, leaving 24 dead and 19 others injured. [China Daily]

WUXI, Jiangsu - At least 24 people died and 19 others injured after a steel company's shuttle bus caught fire in East China's Jiangsu province on Sunday, local authorities said.

The bus ignited at 11:16 pm in a tunnel in downtown Wuxi city, charring 24 of the 45 passengers on board.

The bus was transporting employees of the Xuefeng Steel and Iron Co Ltd run by the Jiangsu Shagang Group, China's largest private steel plant.

The injured are receiving treatment at the Wuxi No 3 People's Hospital. Three of them suffered more than 50 percent burns and their condition remains serious, doctors said.

Witnesses at the hospital said some of the injured brought in at midnight were burnt all over without an inch of skin visible on their bodies.

The police said the bus caught fire when it was going through the Huishan Tunnel in the city's inner ring area, adding that the cause for the fire is still under investigation.

The shuttle bus, ferrying 45 employees of Xuefeng steel company to the plant for the nightshift, was reduced to a shell within minutes of the fire.

"I was sleeping on the way and woke up to a strong smell of something burning. I heard some people shouting that 'there must be something wrong'. After that, the fire broke out at the front of the bus," recalled Zhai Xintong, 29, one of the survivors.

Zhai, who was seated in the back of the bus, suffered a fracture to his waist after he jumped off the bus from the rear window. Several others jumped out too, he said.

Most of the workers sitting in the middle section of the vehicle were burned to death, as the bus was airconditioned and none of the windows except the rear ones could be opened, he said, adding that a few sitting in the front managed to escape from the front door.

"Although the bus was equipped with hammers, I think no one seemed to have applied their minds in the situation.

"Those of us who escaped tried to break the windows from outside, but by the time we broke some open, it was too late," he said.

Zhai said he did not hear an explosion before the fire broke out, adding the driver did not stop the bus untill after the vehicle caught fire.

"If he had stopped when he smelt something foul, maybe we would have had a better chance to escape," he said.

Another survivor, surnamed Wang, told China Daily that the shuttle bus had served the company for three to four years and operated well before the accident. "I don't think the bus was too old," he said.

However, it is unclear whether the company carried out regular checks on the shuttle buses, he added.

According to an employee who refused to be identified, the steel company immediately halted operations of all its shuttle buses after the accident.

Bus security has become an important issue in China after a series of bus blazes have left scores of people dead in the past two years.

A fatal bus explosion killed 27 and injured 76 in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, in June last year, following which cities across China carried out comprehensive inspections of buses.