Ten people have been confirmed dead after a bus overturned and fell off a ravine in Markam County of Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China Saturday afternoon.

 

Traffic police in Qamdo Prefecture said on Sunday that the bus was en route to the famous resort of Shangri-La in neighboring Yunnan Province.

 

The accident occurred on No. 318 national highway.

 

Seven males and three females, including the driver, were dead.

 

No further information was immediately available due to communication difficulties in the region. Local police in Qamdo has sent a work group to the accident site.

 

Also on Saturday afternoon a bus accident in northwest China's Shaanxi Province killed seven passengers and injured six others.

 

The 11-seat small bus was overloaded when it fell off a 100-meter deep ravine in Xunyang County, killing three people on the spot, local traffic police said Sunday.

 

Another four people, including a seven-month-old baby girl, failed to survive despite emergency medical treatment.

 

The injured driver known as Zhang Hongxin lost control of the vehicle when driving at a turn of the Mogou Bridge on the No.316 national highway, according to the police.

 

Further investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2006)