Tibet Bus Accident: Vehicle Falls Off Cliff, Killing 11 People, Injuring 8

Eleven people were confirmed dead and eight were reportedly injured after a bus in Tibet fell off a cliff on Wednesday morning. The coach, which belonged to a tour company from Lhasa, was carrying 19 people, according to Xinhua, which added that the injured were taken to nearby hospitals.

The accident, which is currently being investigated, occurred at 9:14 a.m., local time, (9:14 p.m. EDT Tuesday) in the Gonggar county of Shannan prefecture. The region is extremely popular among foreign tourists, although there is a restriction on the number of foreign visitors, according to the Associated Press (AP). Gonggar county is located south of the regional capital Lhasa, which has several tourist attractions.

The area, which boasts of Himalayan mountains and Buddhist culture, is extremely popular among Chinese tourists. In 2014, the region saw over 15 million visitors, clocking in nearly $2 billion in revenues. The visitor numbers were up over 20 percent last year compared to the year before, despite infrastructure in the region being primitive with narrow, unpaved roads, the AP reported.

Last August, a bus carrying mostly Chinese tourists fell off a 10-meter cliff in Tibet, killing 44 people and injuring 11, ABC News reported.