Hong Kong traffic accident leaves 87 people injured

Four passenger buses and a truck collided near a Hong Kong road tunnel Friday and 87 people were injured, including children. Most of the injuries were minor.

The accident occurred after midday near a tunnel entrance on Tseung Kwan O Road in Lam Tin, a residential area in Kowloon. A taxi carried out a “careless lane change” and the other vehicles could not stop in time, causing the collision, senior police inspector Lee Pok-kit said.

Scores of firefighters, paramedics and police rushed to the scene. Several people lay on stretchers and at least one passenger was seen being helped out of a vehicle. A window on the side of a bus was shattered.

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Some of the injured, including elderly people, were treated by paramedics at the scene. A group of primary school students was seen sitting on the road and some of them sustained hand injuries.

Lam Tin fire station commander Shen Chuen said his team had to help some 240 people leave the vehicles and the operation was challenging because there were so many children and elderly passengers. A bus driver was also trapped in a vehicle, he said.

The injuries mainly included scratches on people’s hands, legs, heads and faces, according to Wong Po-lung, Lam Tin’s ambulance depot commander.