Bus falls off bridge in northeastern China, killing 10 South Koreans

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, people watch the wreckage of a bus at the site of a road accident on Ji'an-Dandong Road in Ji'an City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Thursday, July 2, 2015. The bus carrying a group of South Koreans fell off a highway bridge, officials said Thursday. (Wang Haofei/Xinhua via AP) NO SALES (The Associated Press)

BEIJING – A bus carrying a group of South Koreans fell off a highway bridge in northeastern China, killing 10 of them, officials said Thursday.

The accident took place Wednesday after the vehicle left the northeastern Chinese city of Ji'an and was about halfway to its destination of Dandong, which borders North Korea, the official Xinhua News agency said.

The Ji'an government said on its official microblog that 10 people died, all of them South Korean. Earlier state media reports had said two of the victims were Chinese.

South Korean officials said 26 South Koreans were on the bus as part of a 140-person delegation of mainly South Korean government employees.

They were in China to tour historical sites, including places where Korean independence fighters resisted Japan's colonial rule before the end of World War II, according to officials from the South Korean Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs.

The bus was part of a six-bus caravan, South Korean officials said.

Photos circulating online showed the bus resting on its top in shallow water under the bridge.