5 dead, 24 injured in China coach explosion

The death toll from an explosion on a coach in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Sunday has risen to five with another 24 injured, local government said on Monday. The blast occurred at around 6:40 p.m. Sunday on a long-distance bus with 47 on board as it was about to reach the bus station in Pucheng County. The dead include three men and two women. Four of them have been identified. Among the injured, two remain in critical condition, said Wang Xiangmin, a doctor with Pucheng Hospital, which received 13 injured people. The 24 injured were between the ages of three and 44. "I did not feel anything abnormal before the blast," said a passenger surnamed Wang. "The bus was waiting to pass a crossroad when the explosion happened. The huge bang made me faint instantly." Wang and her friend were seated in the back of the coach. She opened her eyes to see chaos inside the vehicle. She woke up her friend and they jumped off the bus. Wang's ears were harmed in the incident. Another passenger surnamed Geng was sitting in the middle of the last row of the coach. He told Xinhua he also did not notice any abnormal signs prior to the blast. He said he suddenly saw white smoke being emitted one meter in front of him, and he instantly felt scorching on his legs. He woke up to see debris from bus window glass and managed to climb out on his own. Geng suffered an eye injury. The bus, owned by a passenger transport company, left a bus station in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi, at 4:50 p.m. Sunday, with 45 passengers and two crew members, according to a police investigation. The bus stopped for five minutes at a service station in Fuping County on the way, but no new passengers boarded or exited the bus during the trip, according to police in Pucheng County. The cause of the explosion is being investigated. Experts from the Ministry of Public Security and Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department have arrived at the scene to join the investigation. "Any passenger carrying explosives would have boarded the bus inside the station," said another injured passenger. He claimed staff conducted security checks on luggage and scanned tickets, but he himself did not undergo any checks when entering the station. Doctors found a cotton-like material and suspected metal debris in one injured passenger, according to Wang Xiangmin with Pucheng Hospital.