Fifteen people aboard a passenger bus were killed Tuesday and nine more injured, including two in critical condition, after the bus fell into a 80-meter deep valley in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The incident took place at 2:00 p.m. after the coach running uphill collided head-on with a descending bus, which was carrying no passengers, on a road 100 km away from Du'an county.

Fourteen aboard the coach were killed on the spot and one more died in hospital.

The wounded have been hospitalized. Local authorities have sent a rescue team to the scene and investigation of the incident is underway.

Sixteen people died and 21 were injured when a coach fell into a dry riverbed off an expressway in east China's Jiangxi Province Wednesday morning.

The coach carrying 37 passengers was traveling on a viaduct of the Nanchang-Zhangshu Expressway at 4 a.m. when it ran off the road and fell 10 meters into the dry riverbed. Sixteen passengers died at the scene and the wounded were immediately hospitalized.

The coach set out from Wenzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, for Jiangxi.

Local authorities have rushed to the site to direct rescue work and police are investigating the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2004)