One tourist killed, dozens injured in Cambodian bus crash

(Photo: DAP news)

Feb 29, 2012

DPA

Phnom Penh - A Russian tourist died and dozens of foreign nationals were injured after a bus carrying 46 people overturned in southern Cambodia, local media reported Wednesday.

The accident happened late Tuesday after the bus blew a tyre while travelling between the coastal resort town of Sihanoukville and Koh Kong town, which borders Thailand.

Minister of Tourism Thong Khon confirmed a Russian woman had died, but denied media reports that other passengers had been critically injured.

'The hospital in Koh Kong is looking after them - most of them were evacuated to Thailand,' he told dpa on Wednesday, adding that four Cambodians were also injured. 'All the injured are not (in) so serious (a condition).'

Thong Khon said he did not have information to hand on the nationalities of those involved.

The driver of the Paramount Angkor Express bus reportedly ran away after the accident.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper said the company's buses had been involved in four accidents last year that killed four people. Its sister company was involved in seven crashes in which six people died.

Cambodia's roads have improved markedly in recent years, but driving standards remain poor. More than 1,800 people died in traffic accidents last year, a fourfold increase in a decade.