The bodies of the two Malay tourists killed in Monday's highway accident on Thursday were carried to Guilin City of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and will soon be flown back home, said Li Liege, deputy director of the tourism bureau of Hezhou City.

The two victims were Aw Kam Thing, aged 56 and Ng Yuen Imm, aged 62. Their relatives insisted on bringing their beloved ones back home for burial.

Currently, however, only the civil affairs departments in Nanning, the regional capital of Guangxi, and Guilin City are authorized to handle such affairs concerning foreign nationals. Their relatives decided to carry the dead bodies first to Guilin and then fly them back home from there.

Workers from the local government departments of Hezhou assisted the relatives of the killed Malay tourists in going through the necessary procedures, according to Li.

A bus with 26 tourists aboard, including 23 Malay tourists, all of Chinese origin, overturned near the Gupo Mountain Scenic Zone in Hezhou City around 11 a.m. on Monday, killing three people on the spot and injuring 23 others.

Two Malay tourists and the Chinese bus driver were identified to be among the killed, sources from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Bureau of Work Safety said.

In a related development, information from the Beijing representative office of the SOS international rescue center said that with the help of the center, six more Malay tourists injured in the accident on Thursday flew back home from Guilin.

After the accident, the center sent three medical teams to help the rescue operation in Hezhou and sent another seriously injured Malay tourist directly to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Another batch of six Malay tourists injured in the accident were also sent to Guilin on Thursday and will fly back home from there on Friday if everything goes all right.

The cause of the accident is being investigated.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)