A bus carrying 24 Chinese tourists overturned on Sunday afternoon while traveling from Rayong Province to Pattaya in Thailand due to heavy rainfall and slippery conditions. The passengers were injured, and have been transferred to hospital. Photo: CCTV

A bus carrying 24 Chinese tourists overturned on Sunday afternoon while traveling from Rayong Province to Pattaya in Thailand due to heavy rainfall and slippery conditions. The passengers were injured, and have been transferred to hospital. The injured Chinese nationals are all in stable condition. 

The Chinese Embassy in Thailand said in a notice on Monday that two Chinese nationals are still receiving treatment, while the remaining tourists have been discharged. 

 The group included travelers from several domestic tour agencies, the embassy has learned. 

Upon receiving notification from Thai police, the embassy immediately activated an emergency response mechanism for the consular protection of Chinese citizens. 

 The embassy called on local hospitals to provide full medical treatment to the injured, urgently contacted domestic tour operators and tourism authorities to provide assistance, and arranged for consular staff to visit them at hospital. 

The embassy will closely monitor the treatment and recovery of the hospitalized tourists and urges relevant parties to carry out follow-up work effectively, the embassy notice said.

China Central Television reported that among passengers on board, four had been trapped inside the overturned vehicle. Rescue forces arrived at the scene and used cutting tools to extricate them from the wreckage before transporting them to a nearby hospital.

According to local news reports, the accident occurred at around 2 pm on Sunday.

The driver said that he was taking the tourists back to their hotel in Pattaya after their trip to Koh Samet in Rayong Province.

As a result of the current rainy season in Thailand, conditions were very slippery, and this caused the bus to overturn and slide onto the grass verge. 

Thailand has been one of the most popular destinations among Chinese tourists after  pandemic preventive measures were lifted this January, with Pattaya among the top tourist sites in the country. 

According to latest data from the tourism authority of Thailand, the number of tourist arrivals in Thailand reached 12.8 million in the first six months of 2023. Among them, Malaysian tourists ranked first in the total number of foreign visitors, with Chinese tourists coming in second accounting for about 1.4 million arrivals. 

According to report by Bangkok Post in June, Thailand's tourism sector is expecting to attract 5 million Chinese tourists this year, and that local officials are "confident" about the number. 

Global Times