A bus company in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, is offering compensation packages of up to 420,000 yuan (US$61,441.38) to victims of the June 5 bus blaze.

The blaze killed 27 and injured 74. It occurred on a No. 9 bus near the city's zoo in the morning rush hour.

Unidentified families told today's Chongqing Times newspaper that a team from the bus's operating company, Beixing Bus Co Ltd under the Chengdu Public Transport Group, has contacted them about compensation. The compensation packages vary with the highest offer at 420,000 yuan.

The package is to cover compensation for death, mental anguish and the living costs for the victims' dependants, one of the families told the newspaper.

Neither the Chengdu government nor the bus company has confirmed the compensation report.

Not all families were satisfied with the offers and at least seven have not accepted the offers, the Chongqing-based newspaper said.

Those families said compensation for death should be 338,860 yuan - 86,200 yuan higher than the offer of 252,660 yuan - and be estimated by taking Chengdu's average wage for last year, or 16,943 yuan, as the base for calculation.

But the bus company took the province's average wage of 12,633 yuan as the base and calculated the total on 20 times the base rate.

(Shanghai Daily June 12, 2009)