On Tuesday, ten people were killed and eleven injured when an
overloaded truck overturned on a highway in Tibet,
according to local traffic police on Thursday.
The truck, carrying 29 people and 1.5 tons of goods, overturned
at 7:00 PM on state highway 219, in Ngamring county of Xigaze city,
southern Tibet.
Eight people were killed on the spot and two others died later at
hospital.
Traffic police say the driver, Basang, is an employee of the
development and reform committee of Doilungdeqen county in the
regional capital Lhasa, and the cause of the accident is under
investigation.
In Guangdong
Province on Wednesday, six people died in a factory fire, said
local police.
A three-floor dormitory building of a toy factory in Qiaoxi
village, Pandong township of Jieyang city caught fire at 5:52 AM
and those on the second and third floors were trapped.
Sixteen people were rescued by firemen and the fire was
extinguished at 7:30 AM.
The cause of the fire is as yet unknown, but the initial
investigation discovered that paper boxes and straw baskets were
stored in the first floor and the loft.
In Shaanxi
Province, five people died and eight were injured when a farmhouse
exploded on Wednesday afternoon.
According to local police, the explosion occurred at about 3:30
PM in Sanqi village in Huxian county of the provincial capital
Xi'an, and destroyed nine neighboring houses.
The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, but police
believe that people who were illegally manufacturing firecrackers
lived in the house.
The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals and three with serious
injuries were transferred to hospitals in Xi'an.
Also in Shaanxi on Wednesday, six were killed and 17 injured
after falling off a lift while attending the opening ceremony of a
construction project.
Twenty-three guests at the opening of a car exhibition hall located
at Meilian Garage in Xi'an were invited to inspect the roof of the
hall by riding a lift meant to carry construction materials.
When the lift reached the second floor, a steel cord broke and the
lift tilted. All 23 fell off and six were crushed to death by a
board, which had fallen off the lift.
The other 17 were injured and rushed to two hospitals. Their
conditions are not yet known.
(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2004)