China Bus Crash Kills Eight Schoolchildren

A school bus has crashed into a reservoir in central China, killing eight children, two teachers and the driver.

The accident in the country's Hunan Province reportedly happened at around 5pm but the bus was not discovered for several hours afterwards.

The bus had been taking children home from the Lelewang kindergarten in Xiangtan City, when it crashed into the reservoir in a mountainous area just outside Changsha City.

According to villagers the reservoir is about six square kilometres in size and about seven metres deep and is used to farm fish and irrigate farmland.

A local fisherman spotted flashing lights on the sunken bus and reported it to the police.

It was raised to the surface at around 4am on Friday morning and the bodies were recovered.

There are fears the bus had been overloaded with passengers - a common cause of fatalities on China’s roads.

A series of accidents in recent years involving vehicles carrying schoolchildren have made such incidents a sensitive issue in China.

Eight children died in a bus crash on China's southern island province of Hainan in April on their way to a school outing.

In 2011 another school bus crash in China’s Gansu Province killed 20 people and injured 44 others.

The tragedy prompted then-premier Wen Jiabao to promise more government funds to improve school bus services.