(LEAD) 4 dead, 3 seriously injured in bus-van crash inside tunnel in central region

BOEUN, South Korea, A tourist bus crashed with a van inside an expressway tunnel Saturday, killing four people and leaving three seriously hurt, officials said.

The 15-seat van was traveling inside Suriti Tunnel along the Dangjin–Yeongdeok Expressway in Boeun, 135 kilometers southeast of Seoul, when the tourist bus rear-ended it at 8:55 a.m., police officials said.

The accident left four of the van's 11 passengers dead. Two were pronounced dead at the scene, while the others died while being treated for injuries at a hospital.

The seven remaining passengers in the van also sustained injuries, two of them seriously.

Officials said all 11 passengers were friends on a weekend outing.

From the bus, one of the 26 passengers was seriously hurt, and the driver sustained a minor injury.

The police have booked the bus driver on charges of reckless driving causing death and injury, as they are investigating the exact cause of the crash.

This photo provided by the Chungbuk Fire Service Headquarter shows a tattered van in a traffic accident inside an expressway tunnel in the central county of Boeun on Oct. 21, 2023. Two of the van's 11 passengers were killed and another was left in cardiac arrest after a tourist bus rear-ended the van.

Source: Yonhap News Agency