In a village in the Chinese province of Jiangxi, numerous people wait at night to attend cremations the following morning. Suddenly, a truck drives into the queue of visitors. 19 people die and many are injured.
A truck crashed into a queue of visitors on the street outside a crematorium in southeast China, killing 19 people. Another 20 were injured, according to Chinese state media. The accident happened shortly after midnight in Taoling Village, southeast of Nanchang City in Jiangxi Province.
Because of the heavy rush at the crematorium, relatives and friends waited outside and had set up offerings for the dead on the side of the road, residents told the state agency. They would have wanted to be present at the cremation the next morning. The cause of the accident is being investigated, it said. Many of the dead were from Taoling Village.
It was not mentioned whether the cremation facility, like so many others in the current massive corona wave in China, was overloaded with the high number of Covid 19 victims. State media have been reporting long waiting times, traffic jams and queues in front of crematoria for weeks because the large number of bodies cannot be cremated quickly enough.
Shortly after the accident became known, the police warned motorists of "foggy weather" in the region, according to the media. "There is poor visibility, which can easily lead to traffic accidents," it said.
Traffic accidents are common in China due to a lack of security checks. In December, one person died in a pile-up involving hundreds of vehicles. In September, 27 people were killed when the bus that was taking them to quarantine facilities in the south-west of the country overturned.
