2 000 tourists missing in China

2008-05-13 18:20

Chengdu - Thirty-seven tourists were killed when their coach was buried by a landslide after a catastrophic earthquake hit China and another 2 000 are unaccounted for, state media said on Tuesday.

The tourists were travelling in Sichuan province in southwest China when the devastating quake struck, the official Xinhua news agency said, quoting local emergency authorities.

An estimated 2 000 travellers remained unaccounted for in the wake of the 7.9-magnitude quake, which left tens of thousands dead or missing in the region, but China said no foreign casualties had so far been reported.

The quake region is home to the giant panda, making it one of China's biggest tourist draws.

Britain's Foreign Office said it was urgently investigating reports of 15 missing nationals believed to be in Wolong, where a famed panda park is located.

The British Embassy in Beijing said it had sent four emergency workers to Chongqing to assess the situation of its nationals in the area.

Three tourists missing

"At the moment, we have little idea about the latest situation of the area. Hopefully, we will be able to find out more this afternoon," a spokesperson told AFP.

Two Chinese-Americans and one Thai tourist in Sichuan are also missing, Xinhua said.

Australia's foreign ministry said it was contacting its nationals in the affected areas to confirm their safety.

A spokesperson said: "We have a very small number of people registered as being in the area - residents, people working on short-term contracts with volunteer programmes and the like.

"The problem is that people don't register, so the number is getting bigger and bigger as we get calls from relatives to let us know they have family in the area."

Ailsa Weymes, a teacher accompanying more than 100 Hong Kong students on a week-long trip to China, said they were driving to a panda park near Chengdu when the quake hit.

Shaking vehicle

The group initially blamed the roads or poor driving for the shaking vehicle, only later realising they had been thrown around by the force of the quake, she said.

She said she was kept awake all Monday night as aftershocks shook her room.

The group planned to fly to Xian in central China after authorities indicated some flights could resume on Tuesday afternoon, she said.

A Hong Kong government spokesperson said a 60-year-old Hong Kong woman had suffered a serious head injury during the quake and had undergone surgery, but gave no further details.

Two major travel agencies in Hong Kong, China Travel Service and Hong Thai Travel, said their tour groups in or near Sichuan had been located and were safe.

Joseph Tung, executive director of the Travel Industry Council in Hong Kong, said he had not received any reports of injury or deaths from Hong Kong tour groups in the disaster zone.

Five flights between Hong Kong and Chengdu were either delayed or cancelled on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Airport Authority in Hong Kong told AFP.

- AFP