Five children critically injured Tuesday in a kindergarten bus accident in Dengzhou City, in central China's Henan Province, have died after emergency hospital treatment failed, hospital sources said Wednesday.

The No. 1 People's Hospital and No. 3 People's Hospital in Dengzhou admitted eight injured children after the accident, which took place at 6:40 a.m. Tuesday.

According to initial investigation, 11 children aged between two and five were on the bus owned by a village kindergarten in Gengzhuang Village of Dengzhou.

It was taking children from neighboring villages to the kindergarten, when it suddenly lost control and plunged into a brook by the roadside. Three of the children on the bus were not injured.

The hospitals said the three remaining injured were in stable condition.

The driver of the bus has been put into custody by the police.

The Dengzhou government has urged a thorough checking of all primary school and kindergarten vehicles in the city.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2009)