8 JUN, BEIJING-A fire on a bus in southeastern China has killed 47 people and is being investigated as a “serious criminal case”, state media said on Saturday, just days after 120 people died in a fire at a poultry plant.
The bus caught fire during rush hour on Friday as it was operating on elevated tracks in the coas
tal city of Xiamen, the official Xinhua news agency reported, without elaborating on the cause.
The case in southeastern China has initially been identified as a “serious criminal case” and further investigations are under way, the report said.
Earlier this week a fire at a poultry slaughterhouse in northeastern China killed 120. Authorities said saf
ety management at the plant was a “total mess” and have detained two senior executives.
Buses have been targeted before in China .
In 2009 a passenger ignited gasoline on a bus in southwestern Chengdu, killing 27 and injuring dozens more. Another 24 people died the same year in a shuttle bus fire in Wuxi, near Shanghai, started by a disgruntled steel worker.
In 2005 a 42-year-old farmer with terminal lung cancer set off a home-made bomb aboard a bus in southeastern China , in a suicide attack that wounded 31. Reuters
