Nineteen Dead, Thirty-Four Injured In China by Benson Agoha

Fourteen people have died while ten others were injured in a stampede during a religious event in northwest China.

The incident occured in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Sunday, said the Xinhua News Agency quoting local government sources.

The stampede, said the agency, happened at around 1 p.m. Sunday in the Beida Mosque in Xiji County, Guyuan City, when traditional food was being distributed to believers who gathered to commemorate a late religious figure.

The reports said all the injured were rushed to a local hospital in Xiji, but fourteen people died `despite doctors' efforts'. Ten others were being treated in hospitals.

Four others who were in serious condition have been transferred to a hospital in Guyuan, the reports say.

Eye-witness account said people trampled on each other as they rushed to get food.

One witness, Mao Minna, said her mother and five-year-old daughter also fell during the stampede, but she managed to pull them out.

In another development, a bus coach exploded and killed five people, injuring 24 others.

The explosion occured on a coach in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Sunday. It occured around 6.40pm.

The death toll from an explosion on a coach in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Sunday has risen to five with another 24 injured, local government said on Monday.

Reports say the blast occurred at around 6:40 p.m. Sunday when a bus, on a long-distance journey was about to reach the bus station in Pucheng County. It had 47 passengers on board at the time.

Of the five, three of the dead men, while two were women.

Four of them have been identified. Among the injured, two remain in critical condition, said Wang Xiangmin, a doctor with Pucheng Hospital, which received 13 injured people.

The 24 injured were between the ages of three and 44, Xinhua News Agency reported.

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