Kindergarten Bus Fire

[Anchor Lead]

Heartbreaking news out of China: a kindergarten bus caught fire in Weihai, Shandong Province, claiming the lives of 12. Ten of them were Korean children. Here’s more.

[Pkg]

A blaze flares up from near the door of a bus inside a tunnel. The flames then suddenly envelop the entire vehicle. This school bus was headed to a Korean international school in the vicinity.

[Soundbite] Citizen of Weihai : "It appears the road is blocked. We can't go in that direction. First-aid and security vehicles are at the site."

The fire claimed 12 lives including the driver and kindergarten students boarding the bus. None of the eleven students aged 4 to 7 were able to escape. Ten of the eleven students were children of Korean residents in China.

[Soundbite] Consul Lee Gang-won(Korean Consulate General in Qingdao) : "I just talked with the mayor of Weihai. The accident was immediately reported but the bus burnt down in just 20 minutes."

The cause of the accident is yet unknown but the bus clashing with a garbage collecting vehicle that was traveling ahead is believed to have caused the fire. The school implicated in this incident goes by the name of a "Korean international school" but it's confirmed that it's not an authorized institute by Korea's education ministry. The Korean consulate general in Qingdao has immediately set up a task force to command follow-up efforts at the site of the incident. It's also investigating the cause of the fire together with Chinese security police.