Wang Li, an executive with Enshi Prefecture Bus Group company, said 27 passengers, two drivers and one ticket seller were aboard the vehicle.
The bus was discovered in the rubble of the landslide, which killed one worker and injured another, at a railway tunnel construction site further up the hill in Badong, western Hubei Province. Two workers are missing.
Rescuers used explosives to blast boulders and reached the front of the bus around 4:00 a.m. on Friday, but found no signs of life, said sources from China Railway Tunnel Group Co. Ltd.
The bus, which was registered in Lichuan, a city in Enshi, was returning after a journey to Shanghai on Monday, with 30 people aboard.
But a record obtained from Liushuping safety service station in Yesanguan Township, the last checkpoint before the bus reached the landslide site, showed the bus had 27 people on board, most of whom were locals of Lichuan.
It is not clear whether the registration included the bus workers. A four-month-old infant was among the victims, said a statement on the website of the press center of Badong County.
The landslide occurred at about 8:40 a.m. on Tuesday at the entrance of the tunnel in Badong county, Enshi prefecture, hitting the four workers who were painting the walls on scaffolding, killing one worker and injuring another. Two workers are missing.
The landslide left about 1,000 cu m of rubble on National Highway 318, which connects Shanghai and Tibet Autonomous Region and is the main route for all motor vehicles in western Hubei. The highway lies 28 meters down the hill from the railway tunnel entrance.
(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2007)
