UPDATE - GENTING BUS TRAGEDY: Death toll climbs to 36

KUALA LUMPUR: At least 36 people were killed while 16 others were injured when an express bus overturned and plunged into a ravine at Km 3.5 Jalan Genting, near Chin Swee Temple at 2.45pm today.

Rescuers are working frantically to locate survivors, many of whom were flung out of the bus as it rolled down the 60m ravine.

It is understood that at least five were seriously injured.

Survivors were sent to the Selayang and Kuala Lumpur hospitals within an hour of the accident. 

The bus, which was initially believed to be carrying 49 passengers, was headed for the city at the time. However, rescuers said the number of passengers could be more than that as they recovered another three bodies from the wreckage.

 

As at 6.50pm, rescuers, working in the rain, were still trying to recover the bodies, some of which were flung metres away from the bus.

 

The passengers are believed to be local and foreign tourists.

 

Rescuers told the NST that the trees and undergrowth had slowed down the momentum of the bus as it rolled down the ravine. 

 

Emergency and rescue personnel brought in a crane and jerry-rigged a bucket recovery system to haul up the survivors and the dead.

 

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The task is labourous as only two people can be hauled up at a time.

 

At 7pm, Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department chief Azizan Ismail said rescue operations would continue for at least another two hours. 

 

 

Rescue personnel from various agencies were dispatched from Bentong, Kuala Lumpur and Kuantan.

 

Meanwhile, Bernama quoted Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) Emergency and Trauma Department head Datuk Seri Dr Abu Hassan Ashaari saying that five bodies had been sent to the hospital by 6.28pm.

 

Other hospitals the victims were sent to were the Sungai Buloh Hospital, Selayang Hospital and the Bentong Hospital.

 

"So far the Selayang Hospital has received seven of the victims, HKL (five), the Sungai Buloh Hospital and Bentong Hospital two each," Dr Abu Hassan said when met at HKL.

He said the victims were aged between 19 and 50 years. 

Read more: UPDATE - GENTING BUS TRAGEDY: Death toll climbs to 36 - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-color-red-update-genting-bus-tragedy-font-death-toll-climbs-to-36-1.341423?cache=golhyfvvipwqzn%2F7.261463%2F7.261895%2F7.308059%3Fpage%3D0%3Fpage%3D0%3Fpage%3D0%3Fpage%3D0%2F7.376145#ixzz2cbXyD5bS