(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-23 10:07

Wuhan - About 30 people are believed to have died after a landslide buried a bus in which they were traveling in central China on Tuesday.

Rescuers search for survivors after a landslide at a railway tunnel construction site in Badong, Hubei Province, November 22, 2007. [Chutian Metropolis Daily]

Rescuers started searching for the bus after the bus company reported the vehicle missing on Wednesday, said Zeng Guoxiang, director of public security department of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.

Wang Li, an executive with Enshi Prefecture Bus Group company, said 27 passengers, and two drivers and one ticket seller were aboard the vehicle.

The bus was discovered in the rubble of the landslide, which killed one worker and injured another, at a railway tunnel construction site further up the hill in Badong, western Hubei Province. Two workers are missing.

Rescuers reached the front of the bus around 4:00 am on Friday, but found no signs of life, said sources from China Railway Tunnel Group Co. Ltd..

The bus, which was registered in Lichuan, a city in Enshi, was returning from a journey to Shanghai on Monday.

The landslide occurred at about 8:40 am on Tuesday at the entrance of the tunnel in Badong county, Enshi prefecture, hitting the four workers who were painting the walls on scaffolding, killing one worker and injuring another. Two workers are missing.

The landslide left about 1,000 cu m of rubble on National Highway 318, which connects Shanghai and Tibet Autonomous Region and is the main route for all motor vehicles in western Hubei. The highway lies 28 meters down the hill from the railway tunnel entrance.