July 12 (UPI) -- Eight people were killed and 16 were injured after their tour bus was hit by a falling boulder in southwest China's Sichuan province, authorities said.
The incident occurred at 2 p.m. Thursday as the vehicle was transporting 30 people through Songpan county in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, China's state-run Xinhua reported.
The coach bus was heading to the Sichuan capital of Chengdu when it was hit and drove off the road, the local government said on Weibo, a Chinese social networking service, South China Morning Post reported.
The statement said a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were among the dead while 15 of the 16 people injured were receiving treatment at Songpan People's Hospital.
Five passengers escaped the incident unscathed, the statement said.
Three people were killed on impact while rescuers found another four people dead under the boulder. One person was pronounced dead at the hospital, local authorities said.
