TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwan bus carrying Chinese tourists crashed into a bridge on Saturday, authorities said, wounding some passengers and prompting a call from China for “greater security safeguards”.

The accident in the southern city of Kaohsiung follows a grisly murder-suicide last year in which 24 Chinese tourists were killed after the driver set their moving bus on fire.

Taiwan’s tourism industry has already suffered a major downturn in visitors from China. The mainland discouraged tourism to the island after Taiwan’s president declined to commit to the “one China” principle that it is part of China.

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be united by force, if necessary.

China’s National Tourism Bureau was paying close attention to the incident and called for greater security safeguards for mainland tourists in Taiwan, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.

Of the 26 Chinese tourists on board the bus, nine Chinese tourists, the driver and the tour guide were taken to hospital, Taiwan’s tourism bureau said, adding none of the injuries was life-threatening.

The Chinese tourists, from Zhejiang province, were in Taiwan on a six-day trip.

(This version of the story was refiled to drop quote marks in paragraph 5)