Bodies of 13 people recovered from Yangtze in Chongqing and two others feared dead

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Fifteen people are feared dead after a bus in the Chinese city of Chongqing plunged from a bridge into the Yangtze River during a fight between the driver and a woman who missed her stop, police have said.

An eight-second surveillance video posted on the force’s Weibo account showed the two arguing and grappling with each other moments before the bus veered across oncoming traffic and off the bridge on Sunday morning.

Wanzhou district police said the 48-year-old woman asked the driver to pull over after she missed her stop. When he refused, she walked up to the front of the bus to confront him. The driver turned his head back several times during the argument.

As the quarrel escalated, police said, the woman hit the driver on the head with her mobile phone. The driver took his right arm off the steering wheel and fought back. He grabbed her arm when she attacked him again, then hastily steered to the left, sending the bus out of control.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A crane salvages the wreck of the bus from the Yangtze River in Chongqing. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Police also posted dashcam video from a nearby car showing the bus colliding with an oncoming vehicle before smashing through a guardrail and falling into the Yangtze.

Wanzhou police said the behaviour of the driver and the passenger seriously endangered public safety and violated the law.

Rescuers lifted the wreckage of the bus from the river on Wednesday night. Thirteen bodies had been recovered and two remained missing, the official Xinhua news agency said.