MANY THAI TOURISTS AMONG 26 KILLED IN CAMERON HIGHLANDS BUS ACCIDENT

IPOH (Perak, Malaysia), Dec 20 (Bernama) -- Twenty-six people, many of them
tourists from Thailand, were killed when a tour bus hit a divider and overturned
on the way down from Cameron Highlands south of here Monday.

Twenty-two of them died on the spot and four on the way to hospital
following the accident at Km15 of the Cameron Highland-Simpang Pulai Road at
11.40 am, said Perak Deputy Chief Police Officer Zakaria Yusof.

He said the double-decker bus belonging to San Express Holiday of Jitra,
Kedah state, was carrying 37 Thai tourists. The driver, co-driver and tourist
guide were Malaysian, he added.

Zakaria told reporters at the scene that the police and Fire & Rescue
personnel were summoned at about noon and deployed about 100 people in the
rescue operation.

He said the bus was heading to Kuala Lumpur from Cameron Highlands, and it
was believed that the tourists were to have flown to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur.

Zakaria said preliminary investigations indicated that the driver lost
control of the bus and the vehicle hit the road divider, crashed onto the
opposite lane and overturned.

He said the identity and gender of the dead had yet to be determined.
-- BERNAMA