Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage shows the fight breaking out before the bus plunge

Security footage from a bus which crashed into a river in China has revealed that the driver was fighting with a passenger moments earlier.

The bus plunged 50m (164ft) off a bridge into the Yangtze River in Chongqing on Sunday - at least 13 people died and two more are missing.

Early reports said the bus had swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle.

But the new footage shows the driver was being hit by a passenger and then struck her back.

The bus, travelling at speed, then turns into the opposite lane and smashes through the safety barriers, before the footage cuts out.

Police have said the fight was the cause of the crash, state newspaper People's Daily reports.

Passengers can be heard screaming in the disturbing footage, shared by Chinese state media.

Image copyright Handout Image caption Dashcam footage from an oncoming vehicle shows the bus crashing through the security barriers

Police said the passenger, identified as a 48-year-old woman with the surname Liu, was angry that the bus had missed her stop.

They said she hit the driver, named Ran, with her mobile phone when he refused to stop and let her off.

Witnesses had said they saw the bus swerve across to the wrong side of the road before crashing through a safety barrier in Wanzhou district.

A huge rescue operation was mounted with teams of divers and dozens of boats and cranes deployed. But there have been no reports of survivors.

The wreckage of the bus was pulled out of the river from a depth of 71m on Wednesday night. Several of the passengers' bodies had to be retrieved by divers.

The crash, on a well-maintained and relatively quiet bridge, has shocked China.

Social media comments on Friday widely blamed the passenger for the crash, though some also criticised the driver for reacting.

One poster on Weibo, Wanten888, said: "If we see any passenger quarrelling with bus driver, we shouldn't stay quiet!"

Another said it was "heartbreaking" to hear the terrified passengers, while a Weibo user called Liza said there should be a law banning passengers from distracting bus drivers.</s>CHONGQING (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A fight between a bus driver and an angry passenger caused a bus in southwest China's Chongqing municipality to plunge into the Yangtze River on Sunday (Oct 28), leaving 13 people dead and two missing.

Based on the black box recording device from the bus and other evidence, a female passenger surnamed Liu, 48, missed her stop and asked the driver surnamed Ran, 43, to stop immediately, Chongqing police said on Friday morning (Nov 2).

After the driver refused to stop, Liu hit the driver's head with her cellphone. During the fight, Ran lost control of the bus and the vehicle broke through a guardrail and plunged into the river with an estimated 15 passengers on board in Wanzhou, Chongqing.

The bus was lifted out of water on Wednesday night.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Management, the salvage work was especially difficult because of the small size of the bus, the depth of the water, limited visibility and shifting currents that impeded divers.

The bus came to rest 71m below the river's surface. All the windows of the bus were broken, and the vehicle rested with its nose down at a 30-degree angle several metres from the face of an underwater cliff.

More than 70 rescue boats came to the scene, including three floating cranes with a total capacity of 125 tonnes.

Zhao Hu, a lawyer, said the family of the victims on the bus have the right to seek compensation from the bus operator and the family of the woman that fought with the driver.</s>BEIJING (AP) - A fight between a bus driver and a passenger who missed her stop caused the bus to plunge off a high bridge into China's Yangtze River, police said Friday. All 15 people onboard are presumed dead.

An eight-second surveillance video released by Chongqing city police on its Weibo social media account shows the two arguing and grappling with each other in the moments before the bus suddenly veered across oncoming traffic and off the bridge Sunday morning.

Buses in China often have surveillance cameras.

A statement from Wanzhou district police said the 48-year-old female passenger asked the driver to pull over after she missed her stop, but he didn't. She walked up to the driver's seat and scolded him. The driver turned his head back several times arguing.

As the quarrel escalated, the statement said, the woman hit the driver on the head with her cellphone. 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.

The Chongqing 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, a major river in southwestern China.

In this image taken from Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 surveillance video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, a bus driver strikes a passenger moments before the bus plunged off a bridge into the Yangtze River in Wanzhou in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality. Police say a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge and killing more than a dozen people in southwestern China on Sunday. (CCTV via AP Video)

The Wanzhou police statement said the behavior of the driver and the passenger seriously endangered public safety and violated the law.

Rescuers lifted the wreck of the bus from the river Wednesday night. Thirteen bodies have been found and two remain missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

In this image taken from Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 surveillance video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, a passenger strikes a bus driver with an object moments before the bus plunged off a bridge into the Yangtze River in Wanzhou in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality. Police say a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge and killing more than a dozen people in southwestern China on Sunday. (CCTV via AP Video)

FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2018, file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a bus is lifted out of the Yangtze River by a floating crane in Wanzhou in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality. Police said on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge and killing more than a dozen people in southwestern China on Sunday. (Wang Quanchao/Xinhua via AP, File)</s>A bus that ran off a bridge in China's southwestern Chongqing city earlier this week, plunging into the Yangtze River and killing at least 15 people apparently occurred when a passenger assaulted the driver, according to newly recovered video taken inside the vehicle.

The footage, distributed by state media, was retrieved from the bus's video recorder.

In the video, a female passenger approaches the driver, hitting him directly in the face with her phone. The driver, with one hand on the wheel, hits back.

"Police said the passenger, identified as a 48-year-old woman with the surname Liu, was angry that the bus had missed her stop," the BBC reports.

The video shows that they exchange more blows before the driver loses control of the bus, strikes a car and careens through the four-lane bridge's railing into the Yangtze.

The bus sank in over 220 feet of water and more than 70 rescue boats were deployed to the scene, according to earlier reports. China's state newspaper, People's Daily, reports 15 people died in the crash.

The bus was pulled out of the Yangtze early Thursday morning as Chongqing residents looked on.

Initial reports suggested the bus swerved to avoid incoming traffic. China's state newspaper, People's Daily, reports police have now say the fight was the cause of the crash.</s>Woman fought with driver, causing bus to fall in China river

BEIJING (AP) — A fight between a bus driver and a passenger who missed her stop caused the bus to plunge off a high bridge into China's Yangtze River, police said Friday. All 15 people onboard are presumed dead.

An eight-second surveillance video released by Chongqing city police on its Weibo social media account shows the two arguing and grappling with each other in the moments before the bus suddenly veered across oncoming traffic and off the bridge Sunday morning.

Buses in China often have surveillance cameras.

A statement from Wanzhou district police said the 48-year-old female passenger asked the driver to pull over after she missed her stop, but he didn't. She walked up to the driver's seat and scolded him. The driver turned his head back several times arguing.

As the quarrel escalated, the statement said, the woman hit the driver on the head with her cellphone. 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.

The Chongqing 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, a major river in southwestern China.

The Wanzhou police statement said the behavior of the driver and the passenger seriously endangered public safety and violated the law.

Rescuers lifted the wreck of the bus from the river Wednesday night. Thirteen bodies have been found and two remain missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said.</s>BEIJING (AP) - Police say a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge in southwestern China.

An eight-second surveillance video posted by Chongqing police on its social media account Friday shows the two got into a fight before the bus veered into the wrong lane and fell off the bridge.

A police statement said a female passenger started quarreling with the driver after she missed her stop.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday 13 bodies have been retrieved from the river and two others remain missing. No one is believed to have survived.

The bus collided with an oncoming car before smashing through the guardrail and into the Yangtze River on Sunday. Rescuers recovered the wreck of the bus Wednesday night.

In this image taken from Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 surveillance video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, a passenger strikes a bus driver with an object moments before the bus plunged off a bridge into the Yangtze River in Wanzhou in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality. Police say a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge and killing more than a dozen people in southwestern China on Sunday. (CCTV via AP Video)

In this image taken from Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 surveillance video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, a bus driver strikes a passenger moments before the bus plunged off a bridge into the Yangtze River in Wanzhou in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality. Police say a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge and killing more than a dozen people in southwestern China on Sunday. (CCTV via AP Video)

FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2018, file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a bus is lifted out of the Yangtze River by a floating crane in Wanzhou in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality. Police said on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge and killing more than a dozen people in southwestern China on Sunday. (Wang Quanchao/Xinhua via AP, File)</s>CHONGQING: A deadly bus accident in China's Chongqing city last Sunday was caused by a fist fight between the driver and a passenger, said local authorities on Friday (Nov 2).

The bus plunged into a section of the Yangtze River in Wanzhou district, killing all 15 people on board, including the driver.

A video retrieved from the black box of the bus shows a passenger scuffling with the driver just moments before the crash.

Dashcam footage from an oncoming vehicle shows the bus veering off its lane, colliding with a car and smashing through a bridge guardrail before plunging into the river.

READ: Two dead after Chine bus plunges 60m into river: State media

According to Wanzhou police, the fight started after a female passenger missed her stop and asked the driver to pull over immediately. He refused, and she went on to hit his head with her mobile phone before they exchanged blows.

The driver then lost control of the bus.



More than 70 rescue boats were deployed to the scene, reported China Daily. The wreck was pulled out of the river on Wednesday night by a floating crane.

Thirteen bodies were reported to have been found. Two are still missing.</s>A bus plunged off a bridge and into the Yangtze River in Chongqing, China, after a fight between the driver and a passenger who had missed her stop.

Rescuers lifted the wreckage from the river on Wednesday night. Thirteen bodies were recovered; two remained missing, according to the official Xinhua news agency
• Bus plunges into Chinese river after fight between driver and passenger</s>In this image taken from Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 surveillance video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, a passenger strikes a bus driver with an object moments before the bus plunged off a bridge into the Yangtze River in Wanzhou in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality. Police say a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge and killing more than a dozen people in southwestern China on Sunday. (CCTV via AP Video) (Anonymous)</s>Woman fought with driver, causing bus to fall in China river

BEIJING (AP) — Police say a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver was the cause of the bus plunging off a bridge in southwestern China.

An eight-second surveillance video posted by Chongqing police on its social media account Friday shows the two got into a fight before the bus veered into the wrong lane and fell off the bridge.

A police statement said a female passenger started quarreling with the driver after she missed her stop.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday 13 bodies have been retrieved from the river and two others remain missing. No one is believed to have survived.

The bus collided with an oncoming car before smashing through the guardrail and into the Yangtze River on Sunday. Rescuers recovered the wreck of the bus Wednesday night.
Chinese police announce that the driver of the bus that plunged into the Yangtze River in Chongqing, China, on October 28 was arguing and fighting with a passenger moments earlier, causing the accident.