Three killed, 27 injured as bus mounts pavement in Hong Kong (2)

Three people were killed and 27 others injured when a bus mounted a pavement here on Friday evening.

The police said the accident occurred at around 6:30 p.m. local time at a junction in the Sham Shui Po district. When a taxi in front braked, the double-decker bus hit the rear of the taxi, then swerved left and mounted the pavement, smashing through railings and hitting a building's canopy.

Pictures of the scene show that an overhanging advertisement on the building had partly pierced through the front window of the upper deck.

Choi Wai Fung, director of the Mong Kok Fire Station, said firefighters arrived at the scene minutes later and found four passengers trapped on the upper deck and four people rolled under the bus. It took around 30 minutes to rescue all the injured out.

Many ambulances were sent to the scene for rescue efforts. An official in charge of paramedic efforts for this accident said one person was declared dead at the scene, while another two succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

The injured were sent to four nearby hospitals, and eight of them were in critical conditions, according to the official.

The police has arrested the 44-year-old bus driver on suspicion of dangerous driving.

The bus company Citybus said the driver joined the company in May 2012 and he had started work at 5:25 p.m. It was his first shift of the day.

Citybus extended its condolences to the families of the dead, and said it would offer assistance to the families as well as those injured.

The crossroad was cordoned off. Traffic on nearby roads were temporarily suspended.