PEKAN - A Singapore-bound tour bus plunged into a ravine off Jalan Kuantan-Segamat, killing one British tourist.

The express bus, which belonged to the Johor-based tour agency Merry Holidays, departed from Pulau Redang on Sunday with 38 passengers on board. At around 4:20pm, it skidded and spun a few times before it plunged into a 15m deep ravine near the Sungai Jernih plantation in Pekan, Pahang, reported New Straits Times.

The accident killed 32-year-old Harry Christopher Woolhouse from Peterborough, United Kingdom.

Many of the other passengers were tourists from Singapore, China and India, Pahang police told The Star newspaper. The wounded passengers had been sent to the Pekan Hospital, Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital and the Muadzam Shah Hospital for treatment, police added, although no details were given regarding the extent of their injuries.

Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry and its High Commission in Kuala Lumpur would render consular assistance to affected Singaporeans, a ministry spokesman told The Straits Times.

Pulau Redang, located off the state of Terengganu on the east coast of Malay Peninsula, is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Malaysia for beach lovers and diving enthusiasts.

The bus driver nicknamed "Along", who survived with a broken spine, told New Straits Times that he lost control of the bus when descending a slope in the rain.

Just a day earlier, another express bus crashed at the East Coast Expressway near Temerloh in Pahang.

On April 12, another bus overturned along Jalan Bentong-Raub, killing three people.