17 dead, 22 injured as lorry rams into mourners near crematorium in China

BEIJING: A lorry crashed into a group of mourners waiting outside a crematorium in south-east China, killing 17 people and injuring 22, German Press Agency (dpa) quoted a Xinhua report on Sunday.

The accident happened shortly after midnight (1600 GMT Saturday) in the village of Taoling, some 30 kilometres south-east of the city of Nanchang in the province of Jiangxi.

The news agency cited residents as saying that mourners were waiting outside the crowded crematorium. They were reportedly making roadside offerings while waiting to access the crematorium the following day.

The cause of the accident was under investigation, Xinhua said. Many of the victims were from Taoling.

Local media reports did not mention whether the crematorium was particularly busy due to the massive wave of infections that has been rolling through China.

After almost three years of lockdowns, mass testing and mandatory quarantine, China abandoned its strict zero-Covid policy on Dec 7. Since then, the world's most populous country has seen a rapidly rising number of infections, with the elderly and those suffering from preconditions particularly affected.

Hospitals are overcrowded and crematoriums are struggling to keep up with the demand. According to estimates, tens of thousands of people may have died so far. Beijing has stopped publishing infection numbers.

-- BERNAMA