Bus crash kills 15 in southwest China

GUIYANG, Jan. 5 (Chinese media) -- The death toll from a bus

crash in southwest China's Guizhou Province rose from 13 to 15 people, the local

government said Monday.

As of 4:30 p.m., ten passengers were hospitalized with serious injuries. Seven of them were in critical condition, a spokesman with the provincial work safety administration said.

Eighteen others were slightly injured.

The long-distance sleeper bus carrying 46 passengers,

includingan 18-month-old baby and a ten-month-old baby, veered off a highway in

Yanhe County. It then fell down an 80-meter slope.

The accident happened around 7 a.m..

Police said three people left the scene after the

accident. They are trying to find them.

The bus, owned by a public transport company in

Guizhou, was enroute from Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong Province, to

Yanhe, a rural county in the northeast of Guizhou.

Local work safety administration official said the

bus was not over capacity. The cause of the accident was still under

investigation.

The official said heavy fog that shrouded most parts of GuizhouMonday morning did not cause the accident. Sources with the provincial road traffic administration said, visibility was between 50 and 100 meters on some interprovincial expressways. Traffic police were busy patrolling these roads. No expressways were closed as of 11 a.m.