Five passengers died and more than 40 others were injured when a bus overturned early Tuesday in Hubei Province, according to the local police.

The coach bus of a tourist bus company in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, was heading for Guangdong Province in the south with 51, including three children, on board. It ran off the road into a 1.7-meter-deep ditch at 5:10 AM on state highway No. 318 in Jianshi County of Hubei Province.

Five people, including one child, were killed on the spot and more than 40 others were injured.

The police, who rushed to the scene five minutes after receiving report of the accident, quoted doctors as saying that all the injuired were in stable conditions without life danger.

The accident in being investigated.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2005)