At least 32 people were killed and 13 more were injured after a tour bus in Taiwan overturned on a freeway near the capital city of Taipei on Monday. Officials said that the bus flipped over while turning a corner on a ramp after taking a group of local tourists to view cherry blossoms, AP reported.
Twenty ambulances and 200 firefighters were sent to the site of the incident to conduct resue operations, BBC quoted the CNA news agency as saying. Rescuers said they had to use a crane to pry the bus open as many of the passengers were trapped inside. The officials said they were investigating the possibility that the bus was over-speeding when the incident took place.
Police spokesperson Ma Ling-wen said that while the speed limit for the ramp from which the bus overturned was 40 km per hour, it was not clear how fast the bus took the turn. Taipei official Tu Bing-cheng said the incident “happened on a curve, so the bus flipped and that could be due to excess speed”. “The whole frame of the bus changed shape,” he said, adding that a part of the vehicle got crushed.
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