China bus falls off expressway after tire bursts, killing 26

BEIJING – An overnight sleeper bus in northern China fell off an expressway into a ditch after a tire burst, killing 26 people, officials said.

The government in the port city of Tianjin said Saturday that the bus with sleeping berths and carrying 30 people plunged off the road Friday night.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the four others on board were found alive by early Saturday and sent to a hospital.

Xinhua said the long-distance bus broke through the guardrail on the Tianjin-Jixian expressway at the Baodi section, which is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Beijing.