A bus with 29 Taiwan tourists plunged into a roadside ditch in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Monday, leaving one person dead and more than 10 others injured, said local police.

The accident occurred around 8:40 a.m. in Tongjiang City when the tourist bus plunged into a 4-meter ditch on the road connecting Tongjiang with Jiejinkou, a tourist resort.

Initial investigation showed that the bus was trying to dodge a farm truck when the accident happened.

Local police had to break open the door to pull out the tourists, who were trapped in the overturned bus. One tourist named Zhu Songchuan, 68, died at the scene.

The injured were sent to the Tongjiang People's Hospital and are all in stable condition, doctors said. Their injuries were fractures to the head, chest or lumbar regions.

Other passengers have been taken to a hotel, police said.

The mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) on Monday sent a letter to the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to report the accident and the handling of the aftermath, sources said.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and the ARATS paid great attention to the accident. The ARATS has dispatched an official to assist the handling of the accident.

The ARATS asked the SEF to report the accident to relatives of the victim and the injured as soon as possible, and would timely inform about follow-ups.

Further investigation into the cause of the accident is under way.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2008)